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NEWS ARCHIVES |
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March 14, 2008
Presbyterian (U.S.A.) Pension board okays 3.8 percent ‘experience apportionment’ Increase in pensions and pension credits goes into effect July 1, 2008
by Jerry L. Van Marter Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Board of Pensions (BOP) delivered some good news to plan members despite currently iffy financial markets — an “experience apportionment” of 3.8 percent, effective July 1, 2008.
Accordingly, retired plan members will receive a 3.8 percent boost in their pensions and active plan members will receive a 3.8 percent increase in their pension credits.
At its March 6-8 meeting here, the board also voted to increase the disability benefit by 4 percent. There are currently just under 350 disabled members in the BOP’s benefits plan.
The apportionments are calculated each year on the basis of a formula that takes into account the pension fund balance, projected assets and liabilities and stock market performance of the BOP’s nearly $8 billion portfolio.
The BOP “balanced” portfolio returned 8.4 percent in 2007, according to vice-president for finance Mike Fallon, but is “down a little” so far this year.
Judy Freyer, the board’s senior vice-president and chief investment officer, noted that the BOP has “no exposure to the sub-prime lending crisis” that is plaguing the U.S. economy.
In a meeting that was generally quiet, other BOP officials reported enrollment increases in several board programs, including the Affiliated Benefits Program — which offers healthcare, death and disability benefits but not pension coverage to ministers not serving in installed positions and lay church employees, and the optional dental coverage program.
With 3 percent growth in 2007 in the optional dental plan — currently through Aetna — Stewart Beltz, the BOP’s director of welfare benefits design and funding, told the board’s Healthcare Committee that a study has begun to explore a BOP self-insured dental insurance program rather than participation in the Aetna program.
Linda Wilder, chair of the Healthcare Committee told the board that “the financial condition [of the BOP’s medical plan] is excellent right now and looks like it will be into 2009.” However, she added, “It’s always unpredictable.
John Cookson, the board’s longtime medical actuarial, told the Healthcare Committee that “best estimate” projections show medical plan reserves gradually declining over the next three years but still within the BOP’s target range.
BOP dues are currently 31.5 percent of “effective salary” — 19.5 percent for health care and 12 percent for pension, death and disability.
The board reelected its current officers to another one-year term: the Rev. Jeff Aiken Jr. of Orefield, PA, chair; Donald R. Fleischer of Wallingford, PA, first vice-chair; and Thomas C. Paisley Jr. of Center Valley, PA, second vice-chair.
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