From the President’s Desk:
The older I get, the more I am thankful for being a
member of the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System. I
remember when I first started teaching, I wondered why I
really was “forced” to start contributing to something that
was decades down the road. Wow, I am so thankful that
someone had the foresight to start such a system in the first
place.
Now that same retirement system has become one of the
best, if not THE best, viable public retirement system in the
entire United States. Even though this system has worked
so well over the past sixty-five-plus years, there are still
those individuals in an elected position that would consider
changing the retirement system so that it would not have to
promise you a certain amount per month in a long range
guarantee. Those individuals would base your retirement
amounts on the stock market values at the time you left
your full-time employment. Those same individuals would
also change the management system to the private sector.
It sounds well and good until one looks at the long-range
effect. By changing this method, it would also reduce the
retiree’s take-home amount and give it to the private sector.
The current administrative costs run about 0.5% of the
money taken in each month from employees and employers.
By going to the private sector, the administrative costs
would increase by a factor of 2% to 3%, which would then be
coming out of payments going to retirees.
Even during this time of the stock market going into a
steep dive, the IPERS Trust Fund has weathered the storm
much better than other funds. This is due to the expertise of
IPERS being invested more wisely than others. IPERS assets
have dropped from $36 Billion to about $32.5 Billion, which
is far less than most expected. The track record of the
IPERS Trust Fund, over the years, is a steady upward trend.
Therefore, I ask you for a little help. The IPERS
Improvement Association has a member on the IPERS
Benefits Advisory Committee and is the only organization
who has such a member and whose sole organizational
purpose for existence is to keep IPERS strong. The yearly
dues to support our organization is only $12/year. You will
never find a better deal, and our membership form can be
found on this website.
PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING US AND THEREBY HELP SAVE YOUR RETIREMENT!
Bill Maas