Okay, good morning, everyone.

Thank you for joining us today.

I am Keisha Register.

I am your HR director, and today I am also going to be your cruise director.

Thanks for joining me.

We're so excited to present Road to Retirement.

And today I have joining me, Patina Brown, our finance director, as well as Bobby Moss, who is the chair of our pension board.

So today, the purpose of today is everyone can get a better understanding of our pension plan, consolidated pension plan and how it works.

So we want you to ask us questions.

Hopefully, everyone has scanned in the QR code.

You have the slides on your phone if you do, and you can also participate in the quiz as we go along.

Alright, so Bobby, let's get started.

So a disclaimer, I will actually just run through this.

When you think about pension and you hear people talking about it, you have to remember that pension at the City of Marietta is different for different people.

Depends on when you were hired, um, how long you've been here.

So instead of trying to form your own conclusion, please come to HR.

You can always call me, talk to Bobby or anyone on the board, but everyone's situation is different.

And so it's just very important for everyone to remember that.

And Bobby will do our introduction.

Hello, everybody.

Everybody hear me okay?

Okay.

That slide's a little bit congested right there.

Um we are relative to terms.

We are kind of a rare uh city because we actually have a defined benefits plan.

A pension plan, like we have is called a defined benefits plan.

We call it a DB plan.

Okay.

As you can read from the slide, um, we originally had a 2% multiplier, our multiplier now is 2.1.

Uh that factors into when we get to the calculation part, which Ms.

Brown's gonna cover, that covers how much of your years of service actually calculate into your final calculation and what your earnings will be when you get your retirement checks or your pension check.

Okay.

The city is assuming a lot of risk on this, okay?

So that's why when any time we make changes to the plan or try to offer a benefit, it has to go through us and lots of research.

To get this out there, the pension board does not make, does not make the changes to the plan.

We do the research, we get all the facts together, and then we have to present it to City Council because our pension plan is a city code.

It's city code 4532.

It used to be 4022.

We'll get another bit later.

So we have to recommend stuff to the city council to make the change in the plan.

If it costs too much of a uh risk, then we're not going to do it because people that are coming in the door today want their retirement plan in 30 years from now or 25 years from now.

And the people that are been here for 20, 25 years want their plan to last into the future.

Okay.

You can go to the next one if you want to.

I'm sorry, I didn't hit it.

Yep.

Okay, so this is our first quiz.

So it should pop up on everyone's phone.

And please select the answer that you think is correct.

And the little timer down on the right shows you how much time you have left.

So this is exciting, the first time we've ever played with this quiz, so we'll see how it works.

Amanda was probably the quickest and correct, followed by Tanisha and Tim.

Love it.

All right, the next question.

What is the current multiplier used in our pension formula?

2%, 2.1, 2.5, or 3%.

A little Jeopardy music in the background, please.

Five seconds.

The correct answer?

2.1%.

Amanda, okay.

All right, Bobby.

Okay, so let's talk about your eligibility and your vesting.

Vesting means, simple term, you have qualified to receive a pension.

That's what a vesting is.

As you can see from the board, on the new 4532 plan, is there I'm gonna ask a crazy question about seeing no hands.

Is there anybody in here that is on the old 4022 plan?

I should see no hands.

You know why?

There's only one employee left on that plan.

That is correct.

So your useless knowledge of the day is we are on City ordinance 4532.

That is the plan.

It's called the consolidated plan.

In 1986, they split from being two separate plans to a consolidated plan, so all employees are under the same umbrella.

Okay.

But within that, there was a time period in 08.

Everybody know what happened in 08?

Financial crisis, everything crashed, right?

So the city had to make some adjustments and some call it insurance in a way to make sure that you had a pension going forward.

So if you remember in 08, that's when we started playing 4% of the pension.

Okay, employee contributions.

Within that little year time, it actually went from a five-year to a seven-year to a 10-year vesting.

Okay, from 1987 until 2008, the 4532 people only had to be vested for five years.

Okay, five years old took.

Then you have the little period when you had to have seven years of vesting, and the current one now is ten years of vesting.

So you have to work here 10 years to be vested in the benefits plan, to find benefits plan.

Some people might why is that?

Well, the longer vesting period helps the plan minimize risk.

The shorter the plan, the less people stay, they're guaranteed a pension.

They can work five years and leave, they get a pension.

That's a risk to the plan.

So with turnover, people leaving, I don't know if I like this job or not, whatever it is.

Any any any circumstances.

It helps us with retention.

It also helps the plan minimize risk.

Having a 10-year vesting plan.

Does that make sense to everybody?

If you have questions, you can raise ask them whenever you want to, okay?

Just alright.

Alright, so that slide is a little bit different than what it should be.

Okay.

So what we're going to talk about now is we're going to talk about people that have worked here, become vested, whether it be five, seven, or ten years, but they don't reach their magic 80.

Okay?

Magic 80 will be in a couple of slides.

Your magic 80 is what the city determines as in you've reached your retirement quota, and you've also either early retired, unreduced early, or you're after 55 years old.

So this slide is tell is mentioning the eligibility requirement, eligibility requirements.

But it's also these are people that started, worked, vested, but left before they met their unreduced magic 80 or their magic 80 and 55.

So the plan will pay you for the years of service, whether you had a normal retirement or not, which is just called normal time, but before you met your true retirement eligibility.

So let's do an example.

Say you came at the age of 30.

You work 17 years.

Circumstances change, you can't work here anymore, but you know you're guaranteed to get a pension.

Okay.

At the moment you leave, you can take what you're eligible for at that moment, which is 17 times the factor.

Okay.

Then if you take it at 65 years old, there'll be no reduction to your pension benefit.

That's what this slide is is explaining.

Okay.

So you'll take a year as a service, times 2.1.

Mr.

Brown's going to get into those details of the calculations a lot more here in a little bit.

Okay.

But then you can take it with no reduction at 65 years old.

What else is 65 years old?

Everybody know?

Medicare and Social Security, right?

Social Security starts around that time.

It's 62 and then 65 to 67, I believe.

Okay.

I don't want to take anybody's thunder, so I'm trying not to try not to talk.

So does everybody understand that?

Normal retirement means you're vested.

You didn't reach your max eligibility requirements.

If you wait till 65, you'll have no reduction to whatever you earned over those 17 years.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

And I'll also throw in there.

You can also reach the age of 65, meet the 10-year requirement, and it would also follow at the normal requirement, uh normal retirement without having to leave and come back.

Um then did retirement age.

Yes.

Sorry.

Um if you left at 47 for 17 years, you could still get the retirement, there would just be a penalty.

That's the next slide.

Oh, okay.

This is putting the whole envelope up to 65 years, which is a magic number for a lot of people when they hit the retirement age.

And Ms.

Brown is right.

If you came at 55 years old and just say you were doing a an experienced job where you worked in City Hall or you work somewhere that probably not a firefighter where you get beat up a little bit, but uh you can work for 10 years, and you're gonna get a normal retirement for those 10 years at 21% of your salary, um, but just no reduction.

So you'll get exactly what you earned when you leave at the door with no deduction.

Does that make sense?

So you meet your age on the uh magic age, and that's below 55.

You have to wait till certain age is not to look at the room.

No, I'll get into that here.

You're good.

You're good.

Those are all good questions.

That's why we're here today.

Okay.

Okay, so again.

How many years accredited services service are required to vest for employees hired after January 1, 2009?

Five years, seven years, ten years, or twelve years.

Probably most of this group is hired after 09, like me.

Three seconds.

The correct answer is 10 years.

Same winners at the top.

Keep winning.

Awesome.

Okay.

So this falls into the question that you just asked me.

So you let's use the same the same person, came in at 30, worked 17 years, left at 47, didn't reach their full eligibility requirements, but they still need that money.

So at 55 years old, whether it be magic 80 and 55 on the brand new people, or 55 years of age if you haven't have a reduced early retirement, you can take it at 55.

So Ms.

Brown in finance, and also all of us, we do calculations for every person that retires.

So we're gonna calculate what they would earn at their years of service at 55 years old.

But here's what comes in.

There is a deduction of 0.0024% for every month that you're less than 65 years old.

2.5.0025.

So take that 120 months, which is 10 years, times that by the 0.0025, you're gonna come up with about 30%.

So a quick term is if you want to take your pension at any time before you reach your eligibility requirements, and you take it at 55, consider it being a 30% deduction to your pension pay.

Yes, so if you take it at 55, then when you turn 65, it's still penalized, right?

Because you're a lot.

Okay, so once you once your um retirement is calculated, you've actually exercise that right, whatever it is when you retire is what it remains for your entire period.

The longer you can wait.

They don't have to take their pension if they're financially sound.

Some people have to.

The longer you can wait without taking that 30% reduction, do it.

If you wait five years and you take it, it's only gonna be a 15% reduction.

But if you can wait the whole 10 years at 65, you'll get the whole amount with no deduction.

But at 55, just think about 30% reduction off of what you're supposed to earn.

That's a pretty good chunk.

Okay.

Does that make sense, everybody?

Any questions?

That's only if you don't have magic 80.

That's correct.

That's correct.

Well, it does, but people stay here for 10 or 12 years, and families change, things change, they move, whatever.

They might work 12 to 15, 17 years, but they're not reached their magic 80 requirements.

Either it'd be unreduced early or normal at 55.

That's where that deduction comes in.

If you need that money, it's going to be reduced.

Okay, so the next question is at what age can an employee first qualify for early retirement?

At age 50, age 55, 60 or 62.

Music, please.

Thank you.

I knew that next time.

They're killing it.

All right.

Let's get into most everybody in this room.

There actually are two Magic 80 retirements.

There's pre-2008.

If you hired before January 2008, raise your hand.

Okay.

So you are in the five-year besting.

And the unreduced early retirement.

Okay?

Which means just Magic 80.

Okay.

As long as you reach Magic 80.

If you started at 18, it's going to be in 49.

You can actually retire like 50-51.

Okay.

A lot of people that come later, the ideal time to come is 30, work 25 years, leave 55.

Okay.

The people that come in their 20s, they don't have to wait till 55.

Okay.

So Magic 80 retirement, unreduced Magic 80 retirement is everybody pre-2009, 2008 that were hired.

You just reach Magic 80.

You can leave when you want.

But you have to read Magic 80.

So there is a little Xcel calculator.

Okay, we have the HR calculator that actually will do your whole retirement.

If you're ever wondering about your Magic 80 date, on the T drive, which is public drive, and you type in pension, there's going to be two little XL power little Excel worksheets.

Go to line 33, type in your birthday and the day you were hired, and it'll give you your Magic 80 to the date you can leave.

Remember.

So on the T drive, T drive under pension.

There's two Excel sheets, they're both the same.

Go to line 33, type in your birthday, type the date you're hired, and it'll give you to the hundreds what your magic 80 is and when you can retire.

When you meet your magic 80.

And just to expound on that a little bit, the reason why those two factors are important is because magic 80 is um determined by the your age plus your years of service.

When those two factors come together to reach at least eight, you can go beyond that, but at the point of time they reach 80, then you are eligible for unreduced retirement given that you have also exceeded or met your besting year ready to five, seven, and ten.

So that's what you were saying.

If you are 55, um you put in what is that 25.

12 and a half years, then you have meta 80.

Um put in your 12 and a half year start at 55 and put it at 12 and a half years you can make your magic 80.

As you're getting one year older, you're also getting one year of service.

So if you think of it like that, it would really only be a year.

Two points a year.

Okay.

No, we like questions.

Okay, so I think I think I reached mac 80 and 53.

So if I retire at 53, I still couldn't get it.

So you um the short you were hired after 09.

Oh, yes.

Yeah, so you would have to wait until you're 55, even though you met your magic 80.

Okay, so I couldn't retire at 53 and then wait until 55.

I have to be here till I've 55.

Well, one thing that you all always want to remember, you want to retire immediately to go, that's the only way you will be offered health insurance.

And that's what she means by that is there is a continual employment, there's no um access uh breaks and service.

Break service, thank you.

Yeah, so health insurance is not offered to charm after individuals.

Any more questions on that?

That goes last 20 years now.

Well, there's a wonderful chart that is always in your enrollment guide that breaks down um health care and when you're eligible.

So for a lot of our more senior um employees that have been here a long time, you are zero premium now as you move into your retirement.

If you have 20 plus years, you remain zero premium.

But this chart in your open enrollment book, it will um you just remember when you were hired, how many years you have or will have when you retire, and it will um walk through the percentage of your premium that you're that you would be responsible for.

Yes.

She she doesn't have the option to retire early.

She has to wait until she's 55.

She she can leave.

She can leave.

We won't stop anybody.

If that's if circumstances are there and you have to leave, we have to do a special calculation for her.

We can't just use the programs that we use.

She'll have to be a manual calculation because that's my thunder.

I won't talk about that, yeah.

She's doing break service.

So newer people would hire anything like after 2008.

Even if I get magic age and 20 years.

And they get 20 years in three game.

So the no no premium really applies to anyone who has been with the city for over 20 years.

Um was hired prior to uh 2006.

You guys are the lucky ones.

I mean, it's it's truly a zero premium.

Everything else is tiered after that.

Okay, so they don't have it will never be aware anyone can get the free.

It's it's percentage, right?

Right.

So for myself, hired after 2006.

Um, if I stay here for 20 years, um my premium would still be a percentage.

The city would pay 85%, and I'd be responsible for 15% of that premium, whatever the premium is.

So yes, you're the lucky ones.

If the premium changes, then I would pay 15% of the that current premium each year.

So if it goes up each year, I would be responsible for 15% of the new premium.

So if I'm supposed to sign our signage on this cost of each month, so the premium that you're paying is created or figured by our insurance company on a Cobra rate.

So that rate is is always going to change.

Um so you can't really figure it out by looking at what we're paying now because our premiums are going to be changing January 1st.

And they we look at it every year, we shop the insurance around, and so it's very hard to predict what your premium will be when you retire.

Yeah, like if I was retired tomorrow, just look at the priority and whatever center.

No, no.

What you would do if you were retiring tomorrow, you look at the enrollment guide for the current year, and you find out what your hire date was, how many years of service you have, and look specifically under retiree premiums, and it'll tell you what that amount is.

But it does not automatically correlate to what you're paying now as an employee.

Good questions.

No way.

This is kind of a hard one, so may need some calculators.

But under the Magic 80 retirement rule, what two numbers must add up to 80?

Maybe not a math question.

H incredited service, years worked and years vested, salary percentage and years served, age and average earnings.

Thank you, Bobby.

Done.

Done.

I lost some drama.

The correct answer is age and credited service.

Tentation's doing very well.

All right.

So next question.

If an employee, this is the math one.

Okay, this is so stay with me, Bobby.

Be ready to explain this.

If an employee started at age 18, at what age could they first retire under the old 80 point pension rule?

Would that be 45, 47, 49, or 50?

They started at 18.

They have to get to 50.

What age is the earliest age they can retire?

Do you want to explain it a little bit?

Okay.

Okay.

On the old Magic 80, they don't have to be 55 to leave.

Okay, so you have to work the math backwards.

Magic 80 minus 18, and then take that difference.

Okay.

62.

Take 62 and cut it in half.

That's how many years they have to work.

Make sense?

Because for every year that you work, two points.

So take the magic 80 minus the 18 from it.

So they came when they came in.

They have to work 32 years.

Okay, could they get double those points?

60.

Wait, wait, 31 years.

Forget it by small math up.

The difference in the 18 and the 80, you cut that in half, that's how many years you have to work.

I got one more, I think.

One more slide.

Some people are still a little confused by that.

So what he's saying is if you were under the old retirement plan, you could have retired before 55.

So if that person's got an 80, didn't do the 80.

And that's going to give you what?

Is it the same slide?

62, right?

So because every year you work, you also do a year older.

So you take that 62 divide by two, and you get 31.

So that's how many years you have to work.

So you work 31 years plus the age that you're and so that'll give you your retirement.

I think there was also one I didn't cover in detail on that slide.

I don't know how to go backwards, but the 55 plus the Magic 80.

What you're what the newer 4532 employees are.

Okay.

So after 09, January of 09, you have to be Magic 80 plus 55 years old.

So if you do some math on that, if you came at 20, you gotta work 35 years to reach 55, correct?

Okay.

So that's a lot of time.

Okay.

For the ones before that.

So we're gonna get into the stipulations of that later when you see what our max benefit is for our pension, okay?

Um we do disability, you can do disability.

Yeah.

So disability retirement is something that happens not so often, but if you're ever in a situation where you cannot work at all.

We would encourage you to apply for disability retirement.

Um a lot of people think that it's similar to Social Security disability, but our requirements are a lot stricter.

And so how it works is if you get disabled, uh, you complete an application, it goes to our pension board.

All of our members discuss the situation.

Our attorneys are there, and they determine whether this disability is appropriate or not.

Um the threshold is pretty high.

You can't, you have to not be able to work anywhere, not just in your capacity in your job, but you can't be a greeter at Walmart.

The standards are very, very high.

Um, but there are unfortunately people that are in that situation, and and we we get those people passed.

The calculation works a little bit differently.

Um basically it is it looks at your last 12 months of earnings, and um it cannot be any less than 50% of your last 12 months.

Um we do a recertification every two years, we send a letter to your doctor confirming that in fact you are still disabled.

Um we bring that to the board, the board approves it, and for the most part, our uh disabled retirees continue to be disabled, unfortunately.

So, any questions about disability retirement?

No.

It does have a survivor benefit.

Um it's the same as the all the other survivors, uh, and I'll go into that a little bit later with those survivor options are.

So, of course, we you all have employer-paid life insurance now.

Uh it is three times your salary up to $300,000.

As a retiree, your life insurance drops to $25,000.

Just to reiterate what he's just saying is that's her nearly work here a year in a day, whether you're hurting here or what?

Okay, so that's a big note.

Yep, so Bobby is making a very good point that the disability does not have to be a worker's comp claim or something that happened to you at work.

If you are disabled, just in general, you do have to be an employee for at least one year to be able to apply for for that.

So thank you for that.

Okay, so breaks in service.

I am the poster child for breaks in service.

I was lucky enough to move to Florida in the middle of COVID.

I left my job, I had five years in.

So I go down, everyone has a party for me.

It was the best party in the city hall, I would say.

But what I did was I forfeited my vesting schedule, so I have to re-vest.

So I'm 10-year vest, so I have to stay here another 10 years before I become vested, and I only get 50% of my previous service after I vest.

So I work for five years, you have to stay another 10 years, and of that first five years, I only get 50% of that.

The only the other caveat to that is you can only get 50% of your previous service if you were gone less than five years.

If you're gone one week over five years, you don't get credit for any of that service.

And that is only if so, what happened in 2009?

The city um started contributions.

So the 4% that goes towards your pension, that just started in 09.

Any service that you had prior to that, if I would have been an employee hired previously and they were not taking the 4% out, I would have been able to keep all of that time.

So that that's a major difference that you have to think about.

But the newer employees that are hired after 09, the reinvesting is is pretty serious.

So really think about whether you want to leave.

Um during uh this period, we've had about 30 to 40 employees come back to Marietta since COVID.

So any questions about breaks in service?

Come see me anytime.

I'm an expert.

Not fun at all.

And now we're gonna get into the actual pension formula, and Betina's gonna explain that.

So justifiably they leave me to do all of the math, right?

Okay, so let's kind of look at an example.

So we've talked about all of the different benefits, and so let's try to apply it and see how that what that looks like.

So with the pension formula, one of the things that you're gonna need to know is how much you earned.

And for those who retired, we keep talking about these two vesting periods, these two time frames.

So those who retired, or I'm sorry, who hide were hired on January first before January 1st, 2009.

We use your top five years of earnings.

That doesn't include a lot of the overtime, these are standard hours of earning, okay.

Um I'm sorry, for the those that are before January 1st, it's the top three years.

I'm sorry, top three years, and those after January 1st, 2009 is five years.

So there is a difference.

Um these are based on your full-time work, like I had mentioned, this is not your um overtime and um at normal service, so this is your regular hours up to 35 um years, and it includes um sick leave and military leave.

Okay, so you can have sick leave up to I believe a thousand hours and your military leave, and it also includes a multiplier.

And the so the multiplier, there's two time frames, and they differ from the ones that we mentioned before.

So most people are um are on 2.1%.

There are for those who are separated prior to December 12, 2001, they are on the 2% multiplier.

Okay.

So we have a quick quiz before we move on.

So which of the following is not a part of the pension formula?

The final average earnings, credited service, the multiplier, or an employee's social security number.

And our answer is D.

So the social security number is not included.

And so we have Amanda, Patrick, and Tentia at the top.

Oh.

Got it.

Okay.

All right.

So let's do an example.

We're gonna take Dan.

Dan is we're gonna look into the future a little bit.

So it is January 1st of 2034, and Dan has submitted his retirement notice to the benefits manager.

Dan was hired on February 1st, 2009.

So remember, January 1st, 2009 is a marker.

He was hired on January of February 1st, 2009.

He will have been a city employee for 25 years.

As of February 1st, 2034.

He has 50, he's 55 years old at that time, and his highest 60 months or five years of earnings add up to a total of 500,000.

So he averaged about a hundred thousand dollars a year.

What will his amount of his monthly pension be once he starts receiving retirement as of February 1st, 2034?

So we take the five years' earnings, right?

So that's 500,000, and we divide it by 60.

That's the number of months within that five-year time frame.

So 500,000, you're gonna divide that by 60, you're gonna multiply by the number of um years of service, which is 25, and then you're gonna multiply all that by the multiplier, which is 2.1%.

Okay.

So when you divide the 500,000 divided by 60, you're gonna get $8,333.

Take the years of service and a multiplier, and you're going to get $4,375, which is a normal benefit, or $52,000 a year.

Dan doesn't have a reduction to his particular retirement because he met the magic 80, which is an unreduced pension requirement retirement.

So his maximum at 30, the maximum you can reach is $33.5% of your salary, and that's working 35 years.

Okay.

So does anybody have any questions on that before I move forward and how we go through that calculation?

Yes, sir.

You said you mentioned that the both of that somewhere.

So if you have sick leave, you can use up to you can obtain up to a thousand hours of sick leave, but it is broken down into monthly.

So you have to um have how many is it um per month?

Yeah.

So it's 174 hours for one month.

And you can have, but it has to, in order for that month to be added to your um pension calculation, it has to be a whole month.

So if you have after you divide everything up, you have 165 left over, that month doesn't, those hours don't count.

Yeah, 6 or your military.

Oh, unless you don't have a year 6.

No, it's I'm sorry.

So you can um you can use either, but it has to total one year.

Like if you're on uh support uh military number employees, the military actually grouped before you employ.

Okay.

Well, I mean I have like CCU's perfect for a work year.

You either use that or the suit.

Yes.

Do you have a year of guaranteed military assesses?

We're using that.

You can't reach Magic A, but then it'll add on to the end.

So you'll get if you have 25 years of service, you get 26 years of service with population.

So the question was if there was prior year military service in this particular instance, the person says he has six years of military service.

Upon retirement, he may have, we'll just say um 700 sick leave hours.

Okay.

So the question is can he use his military service and his sick leave to extend or to extend his years of service for the calculation purposes?

The answer is you can do one or the other.

So most people will choose whichever one is greater, right?

So you can use however many months the 700 divided by 174 will get you, or you can you use the years of service monthly for your military.

You cannot use it to reach your retirement, but you can use it as part of the calculation of years of service at retirement for your calculation.

That makes sense.

Okay.

Alright.

If you if it doesn't, we can if you want to do 35 years, you said for 73%.

Yes.

I think the military service has a cap of five years, or is it uh how many years?

No, you can reach up to one year.

It's seven rate active duty properly.

D214 session, you want to do one year, add it on to your own.

So if you want to be your three five or three four years, yes.

If you're able to do 34 years, you can't reach it with that year.

But if you reach that cap, if you add on two of it because that's the maximum.

So that's the only year is that in the sick leave or one year up to one year worth of credited hours for your total of sick leave for general employees, police, and then fire.

Ours is 29, 12, five.

So yeah, 2,912 hours of sick leave, that reaches a year, that makes it 243 divided by 12.

That reaches a year, that makes it 243 divided by 12.

174% for general employees.

But what um what we're saying is you whether you're fire or normal employee, you're gonna have up to one year for credited service to add on, whether it's military or sick leave, and you have one or the other.

So you have if you want to use your military and you have enough hours, typically what is going to come down to is whichever one is gonna get you to the greater amount.

So if you have six years of military service, you want to use your military service that will get you one year.

You don't have to worry about whether or not you have enough sick leave hours to get you to that one year time period, okay, to add on to your service.

Okay.

So we'll we'll get into vacation, but vacation doesn't calculate into your pension.

You your vacation is a payout at the end.

So you do get um compensated for that time, but it is not included in the calculation of your pension and what as either years of service or as a um a factor for your retirement.

Okay.

So let's take another quick quiz.

What is the maximum percentage of an employee's salary they can receive in retirement after 35 years of service?

60, 70, 73 and a half, or eighty.

All right.

Let's see.

And the answer is seventy-three and a half percent.

Okay.

All right.

So all right, so let's look at a second example.

In this particular example, we're looking into the future again, but only by a few years.

So let's pretend it's January 1st, 2029.

And Molly was hired on January 1st, February 1st, I'm sorry, 2009, on her 35th birthday.

So she has been a city employee for 20 years.

Her highest 60 months of earnings add up to a total of 500,000, very similar to Dan.

What is the amount of her monthly pension when she begins receiving it at the age of 55 in February on February 1st of 2029?

So once again, we take the five years of earnings, 500,000 divided by the 60 months, which worth of five years, but this time she we only have 20 years of service, and then we have the 2.1% multiplier.

So Molly's normal retirement benefit is gonna be $3500 a month.

But there is a kicker.

Molly does not need the 80 point pension or the magic 80 requirement.

So she's gonna have a reduction.

So we talked about how whenever you retire early, there's a reduction to go along with it.

So let's look at how much of a reduction Molly's gonna have.

So she has a hundred and twenty months between the time that she her age now and the time that she's gonna reach retirement age is sixty five.

Um which would be normal retirement.

And so you take that and you multiply it by the point zero zero four one seven, and it's gonna give you fifty percent, fifty point oh four percent reduction by her taking retirement now.

So she remember she started off with a normal retirement of 3500.

Well, she's only going to get 1,751 dollars and 40 cents by retiring early.

So that's a big chunk.

So had she stopped and went to her benefits manager and talked about it, they probably would have advised her that if she would have remained with the city two and a half more years, then she would have revoid avoided that reduction altogether, and she would have had twice as much during her retirement.

Okay.

And Keisha's gonna talk about our pre-retirement death benefits.

Yes, so this term um may confuse a lot of people.

It has always confused me.

Basically, pre-retirement death benefits just means pre-retirement, you're an employee, right?

So this slide talks about if you are an employee who unfortunately passes away while you're employed, what are your pension benefits?

The truth is we do not have any pre-retirement death benefits.

So what would your spouse get or your beneficiary get?

They would get your four percent contributions refunded back to them.

They would also get any employee paid life insurance and employer paid life insurance.

Your beneficiaries would get your supplemental pension, and if you had any 457 or other investments with the city, your beneficiary would also get that.

As a person who deals with this on occasion, um our plans really do leave your loved ones in a really good financial situation.

Um so even though they do not get the actual pension, um, with the life insurance, the supplemental, the four percent, and the other investments, it's it's a good chunk.

Can you break down just a little bit each one of those so that people understand what they are?

Sure.

So as you know, um four percent of your total salary goes towards this consolidated pension plan.

Um in lieu of social security, the city um does not opted out of social security in the 80s, and in lieu of that, um, after you've been with the city as a full-time employee for a year, the city then starts to put 6.14% into a mission square account, and that's a 401A account.

You also have the option to contribute money to either mission square or um nationwide 457 plans.

You can contribute pre-tax or post-tax.

So there's several different buckets of investments that we encourage everyone to participate in, and you can leave all beneficiary or you have to leave beneficiaries for all of those different things.

And so all of those things are an addition to your monthly, those are things if you if we were not talking about an employee that had passed, those are things that are outside of your monthly retirement that you see.

So I know that sometimes people get a little confused about supplemental and their monthly pension.

They are two separate things.

Yep.

Thank you for that.

Any questions on this slide?

Sure.

Um say something were to happen in him, and I know he's tested now.

Say the four of you fested and something happened at 4%.

Would it just be a check?

And then I would just get that normal 4% back at getting in, or would it have been like okay, you have to now CD or something else somewhere else?

I'm just, yeah, so if you were, I'm just saying about if I was not married, if I would marry somebody's work here, money worker or something.

Yep, so if you were married to someone who works here, then they pass away, you come into HR, and um we help you through the entire process.

But the 4% is um it is coming from Truest, which may change, but they are right now, they are our custodian.

You do have the option of rolling that money into some sort of investment vehicle if you like, but a lot of people will just get that in cash, yeah.

Yep.

So does the 4% count as the final paycheck?

The 4% investment that's come that's I'm sorry, your contribution at 4%?

Yeah.

Does that note that says uh Georgia law allows for a payment of the first 2500?

So that's just your normal paycheck.

So depending on how much you you make, um, by law, that is the largest amount of a check that we can give to a beneficiary.

Good question.

The 457B is almost the same as uh Yes.

Yep, the question was um is the 457 plan the same as deferred compensation plans?

Yes, good question.

All right.

So does the consolidated retirement plan provide a pre-retirement death benefit in the form of a pension?

Everyone should know this answer because we just went through this.

So everyone should understand those four things.

Thanks for asking me to clarify those.

All right, the same winners over and over again.

Love it.

Yes.

Okay, this is my favorite picture.

Because honestly, this is what my employees look like when they come into our office and try to decide what to do with their survivor benefit.

So when you come and do an application for your retirement, you have several options.

You have single life, which means I just want the most amount of money that you calculate.

I'm not gonna share it with anyone, I'm not gonna leave anything behind, I want it all to myself.

It is the most popular option.

Um if you do that, your spouse has to consent to it.

Not sure how you get your spouse to do that.

I would not do that.

But um it's uh it's an option.

If you want to leave your loved ones a portion of your pension, you have a couple different options.

You can do 50%, so they would receive 50% of your check if something were to happen to you.

You can do 75%, they would receive three quarters of your check if something were to happen to you.

Or you can do 100%, they would receive 100% of the check.

So same same.

The caveat to that is we also have something called a pop-up.

And pop-up is kind of like a Cesaw.

So a pop-up option means that if I want to leave you 50%, but then you pass away before I do, my check would pop back up to the original amount.

So if you do decide to go with uh survivor option, whether it's 50, 75, or 100, we highly suggest to do the pop-up, because then if something happens to your loved one, you're back to your original state.

Any questions about that?

Right?

Well, say quantity is so 50%.

Are you allocating 50% if you don't select that pop-up option along the survival case?

So the calculations um, I'm gonna try to go next.

Hopefully, it won't go into I'll answer your question right after we do this question.

Did you have uh something to add?

Okay.

Um so this question if a retiree does not choose a survivor benefit, what must a spouse do to allow the retiree to decline survivor coverage?

This may be my favorite question.

Sign a consent form, do nothing, file with social security, call the benefits manager, Sherry Glover.

Call her a lot.

Call her a lot.

She needs some phone calls.

The right answer, sign a consent form.

And that consent form also has to be notarized.

So if there's ever anything that requires um something to be notarized, remember you can always bring it to HR.

Everyone in our office is a notary.

Did you have something to add, Betina?

I was just gonna say that um be mindful of the fact that when you choose your survivor benefit, then it does alter your benefits at the time that you take it.

Is that the calculation is adjusted?

So even though you're going to so whatever option you choose is going to adjust what you eventually take home at the time of retirement.

So I know that sometimes people feel that they calculated their retirement, and they say, okay, well, I also want my spouse to get something, and they'll choose what that amount is, and they're often surprised that their amount is reduced.

So we still have to account for the amount of actuaries that come up with this and how long you're gonna live, your spouse, etc.

etc.

But it's gonna adjust what your retirement take on the week.

How many of you have been on the pension estimator on gym debt?

Okay.

So that's a really good way to look at those different options.

You can put in 50%, 100%, you can change your dates, you can do pop-up, and get a really good idea of what your calculation is going to be.

It's only an estimate.

We cannot do uh we won't know what your final is until after your last paycheck.

Um, but it's a good way to kind of get an idea of what those numbers look like.

Um it depends on how close you are to retirement.

If you're pretty close to retirement, your last pay um sorry, how off is the estimator?

It doesn't include things like uh your increase.

So if you go on there and say, I want to see how much I'll make in five years, it doesn't take into consideration that we're probably going to be getting raises each year.

But those are payouts.

What was your question?

Uh regarding the survivor is possible to be able to be a survivor has to be in that space.

So that's why we always suggest that you add a pop-up, because then your number would go back to what it was originally.

That was a good example.

So the proper does reduce the amount you do figure out?

The original amount.

The original amount.

So it really, these slides go into great detail on how each factor works.

So if you look at the screen for 50%, it starts with 88% of what your normal retirement would be.

And then based on the option that you choose, whether it's 50, 75, or 100, it goes up or down.04%, let's say for 50%.

So if your spouse is older than you, it's going to end up being a higher percentage of your whole number.

If your spouse is younger, it's going to get lower and lower and lower, depending on how many years younger that person is than you.

So it I know it's a lot on the screen.

I'm not going to go into great detail.

Um, but I will say this about the pension calculations.

We have the calculators when you come to HR, uh, HR does the initial calculation, but we have a calculation committee.

So by the time you get your number, five, six people have confirmed that that calculation is right.

So we put a lot of time and effort into confirming all of all of these numbers.

But these are the minute details of how that those calculations are made.

Yep.

If your retirement will do better, you can that or no vacation.

Yes.

Yes.

It buffs a little bit.

Yep, that that's the main reason why your lack your last paycheck definitely affects your final calculation.

So an estimate is is not going to take into consideration all of your vacation that you have and your whatever's on your final paycheck.

Good question.

Dan's formula.

I know uh I think we're getting a little short on time, but just um I will mail these slides out to everyone, and you can read in detail.

They're a little a little smaller on this particular program.

Another Dan example.

Molly has a couple other examples that you can read through as well.

One of the last things that we'll talk about is the social security option.

It's an option that people don't take advantage of.

Um I've never had anyone ask me for their social security option pension.

But pretty much what it is is we allow retirees to get a pension, keeping in mind that they are going to be receiving social security when they become of age.

So there's a chart that we check based on your age, and we basically give you more of your pension up front until you reach Social Security, and then you start collecting your Social Security, and then we take a huge reduction from that figure.

So in this example that's on the screen, you can see that you're looking at if you would have just stuck with your normal retirement, it was 1700.

If you do the Social Security option, it's 12, it's 1200.

So it's a significant difference.

And so they would go ahead and take the advance and have the higher retirement, and then at a later time take the reduced, and they're getting supplemental income from Social Security and the reduced amount for retirement.

Yep.

Social Security is really just depends on when you were born.

It changes.

Okay, so we've had some great questions.

Are there any other questions that we can answer before we do our drawing?

Yes, sir.

Once you start receiving power, um, are you still I mean that actually take out tax is that so are you still paying into Medicare as part of the tax as a retiree?

Payroll, um I don't think retirees, I'd have to double check with payroll.

I don't see any reason why you would.

I mean, because I mean it's just by earned income, but it's like a paycheck, retirement do not hold enough in the clean zone.

That the uh Med carrier would still come out.

We'll we'll confirm with with payroll and get back to you.

I said I'll have to confirm with payroll and get back to you on that one.

No, but right, I heard that there's an amount of federal hands we produce, but I don't know what it really depends on how you complete your your, you know, you get a packet, so you are responsible for um completing it.

We try not to give any advice on those things.

Um it's almost like you're a new hire again.

You have to complete a federal tax form, a state tax form, and all of the all of those.

I will say, let me make sure I'm understand your question.

You're wanting to know if Medicare coming out of your retirement check, is that what you're asking?

Right.

Okay.

So normally it's mostly state and federal taxes that are paid out.

Medicare is not a reduction to your retirement check.

I just want to make sure I don't understand what you're saying.

But we would have to go back if we can get your payment in terms of medicare.

Right, but I don't believe it's there's there's nothing that you would have to pay pay back.

Um, our payroll department is taking every all the required deductions from from your check as a retiree.

Retirement checks aren't required to pay into the Medicare.

We do that guy into your employment.

Yep, I think that's a good question.

So, Brian, what I'll do, let me confirm with with payroll and I'll get back to you on that one.

Is that okay?

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

So if you moved, yep, we have retirees all over the country.

Um so you basically would have to do new tax forms with us when you move.

And you can um a lot of people will go to places where they don't have to pay taxes and just mark on the form that you're exempt.

Yep.

If if we're if you're close to retirement, and then in the birthday year you get a rate, is that a time period you haven't worked for receiving that?

Yeah, so that's a very, very good question.

A lot of people say that they want to wait to the first of the year so their new salary can be calculated in.

But you have to remember that for you, Brian, they're looking at your little or we are looking at your last 36 months.

So your one week of new income is really not going to affect that number.

But that's a very, very good question.

Kelly had a question.

So I thought that there are options for spousal health care.

Yes.

So if that's my understanding that's not cheap, right?

It's like 100 to 4,000 more.

So for family, as you as you retire, um, the health care changes a little bit.

You no longer have a child option or a spouse option, you have either single health insurance or family.

Um again, it kind of depends on you know when you were hired, but in general, uh family health care for 2026 is going up to $1,500.

And is that change or is that locked in?

So it depends on when you are hired and how long you've been here.

So for a lot, many, many people who were hired prior to 06.

I I have to look at it.

Sometimes it is you'll hear us say frozen.

That frozen rate, so let's say your frozen rate is 1,500.

You would never pay over $1,500 for your spouse.

You may pay under, especially if they are moving on to a Medicare Advantage plan, you'll pay significantly less, but you'll never have to pay anything more than that $1,500.

So how you can find out is again by looking in the open enrollment guide, making sure that you look at when you were hired and years of service, and it'll that chart will tell you that.

And so that is until we reach Medicare, then it would be a reduced rate because it's been something else.

Yep.

So what happens for employees as well as retire retirees, I'm sorry, employees as well as spouses.

Um when you retire, you go on to our anthem plan until you reach 65.

And then at 65, you're moved moved over to our Medic Medicare Advantage plan, which is with Edna right now.

Can you specify when you say frozen?

Is it frozen at the time the person retires or is it frozen at the time the person is uh reaches eligibility, the spouse reaches eligibility?

Um so as Bettina mentioned earlier, when you retire, everything is pretty much locked in, right?

So frozen means that it's frozen when you retire.

So if you are responsible, like remember I said I will be paying 15% of my medical insurance.

I'm always gonna pay 15%, no matter how much that number fluctuates.

So an example, if are you thinking of a specific example?

No, what I can give you.

Okay.

Um so if someone retires um and they have 25 years and they um reach their magic 80, but they are on the old plan and it's frozen, but they have a spouse, and they want them and the spouses three years younger than them.

So they reach their um uh magic 80 and they retire.

Okay, so in that example, um, your health care would be 1500 as your spouse ages and they go on to that Medicare Advantage plan, it would drop down to the actual cost, it would not be frozen.

The it would not be frozen based on what that plan was when they retired.

Yes.

Brian, our star student.

Oh this is a lab or me.

Okay.

I would love for you to have that.

But this right here is very important for a lot of people.

Uh could be right here, so I'm gonna bring it up.

Um just because we see the option out of social security.

Once we start receiving benefit, I check every month.

That's something else.

That while you're checking on the Medicare, if it comes out, that we have to pay into it all social security, Social Security at that time.

They don't care what it's called.

You're gonna have to pay social security on that amount of money.

So Brian is he had a question about deductions that are taking out of your check as a retiree.

So as promised, we're gonna double check on that and get back to everyone.

So that's a two day, that's a two.

We're gonna maybe come out of your pension.

Or you're gonna have to pay it on your own end.

You're not gonna have to pay it on your own end.

Shannon, do you do you do you know if that comes out of your retiree checks?

But what's the social city?

No, not mail, but if you're gonna owe it for calling earned income.

I think that if you're whether they call it retirement or not.

So I don't know.

I don't think we're thinking that so it's the same as what we're doing now.

So we don't all do it came back to fly.

Right.

So I'll I'll answer that.

Okay, so what the the question is whether or not there will be Social Security taken out of your retirement check.

The answer is no.

So just like you did not um pay into Social Security and did not have to pay into Social Security while you were um an employee during uh here at the city, you don't have to pay it at retirement.

That is part of wind fall.

That reduced social I got.

Yes.

So I was about to say that's what I was gonna say.

That was previously how it was done.

It was an offset as a windfall, what they call, or a reduction to your social security as a results of you receiving the pension from the city and not paying into social security.

The windfall is not affect anymore if you have reached your and meet the um Social Security requirements of the of the um 40 credits 10 years or 40 credit quarters towards your social security.

If you don't meet those requirements, then your social security you won't have the social security, but as if you meet those requirements, your social security is no longer reduced.

There is no there's no evening out the social security of your pension.

You get them up.

That windfall thing is gone.

January this year.

It looks back one year, all the people get two.

Yep, 2024.

All right.

Any more good questions?

Come on, you ain't hit us in there a little hard on doing that.

All right, can we have someone from HR bring the bowl so we can select a winner?

Thank you, man.

Thank you.

Should I go ahead?

Okay, let's see.

Josh.

Yes.

Well, you have to be present when I don't know.

I don't know.

I didn't make the most saying.

He might have had a school visit or something.

Yeah.

Kim Holland?

Are you?

Oh yeah.

It's only one.

No more tough questions.

Anything?

Yes.

It's supposed to be the runs of retirement.

So the ladies and the room.

That's why I'm just in my wife bought it for me, but I'm just going to do that.

So I would like to thank everybody for coming today.

And I had some, you guys have some great questions.

Um, and I think it's beneficial for not just those that are here, but for everybody online that's listening as well.

And if you have some additional questions that we haven't been able to answer, if you want to hang out, we can do that as well, or if you'd like to make an appointment with our benefits manager, um, Sherry, um, please feel free to do that as well.

So thank you all.

Call Sherry email her a lot.

Text her, call her.