PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2020 - 28

AWARDS 2020 PLAN SPONSOR OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
Kathy Lea, Chief Pension Officer,
Alaska Division of Retirement
and Benefits
Roger Smith, Oregon Savings
Growth Plan (OSGP) Program
Manager
Public Defined Contribution (DC)
Alaska Division of Retirement and Benefits
Juneau, Alaska
PLANS: 457(b); 401(a)-a Social Security replacement. PLAN ASSETS:
$7.4b. PARTICIPANTS: 107,477 in 457(b). EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTION:
0%-6% in 457(b). RECORDKEEPER: Empower Retirement.
" I know other states have geographical challenges, but maybe not
as many as we do, " says Chief Pension Officer Kathy Lea of the
Alaska Division of Retirement and Benefits. Some offices are far
apart, posing major challenges for educating participants in the
state retirement system. In 2018, division staff attending their
annual strategic-planning session with recordkeeper Empower
Retirement decided to step up the educational efforts. That led to
an almost 30% year-over-year increase in 457(b) plan enrollments
in 2018 and a 35% jump last year. The lifetime income score
utilized by Empower to project these participants' retirementincome
replacement levels also improved by 10 percentage
points, from 59% in 2017 to 69% in 2019. -Judy Ward
Oregon Public Employees Retirement System
Portland, Oregon
PLANS: Mandatory DC; three DB plan tracks; voluntary 457(b).
PLAN ASSETS: $2.5b in 457(b) plan. PARTICIPANTS: 34,434 in 457(b)
plan. RECORDKEEPER: Voya Financial.
The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) is
the second most complicated public pension system in North
America. The state legislature controls the benefit structure
and has made 80 changes to it since PERS' 1946 founding.
The agency works to reach a broad spectrum of employees,
not just near-retirees, with its education and communications,
the goal: to help all participants understand their three
defined benefit (DB) tracks and the importance of saving
in the voluntary plan. The PERS Expo last fall attracted a
diverse crowd of employees , 25% of whom were under age
50. Attendees went to presentations about each plan. PERS
also revamped the participant Oregon Savings Growth Plan
website and added new custom videos depicting a younger
employee joining the voluntary plan. -JW
28 PLANSPONSOR.COM April - May 2020
Lisa Joe, Director of Retirement
Programs and Services; Jason
Culp, Retirement Plan Manager,
University System of Georgia
Christine Pirri, Vice President,
Nonclinical Operations,
Cobleskill Regional Hospital
University System of Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
PLANS: 403(b); 457(b); 401(a). TOTAL PLAN ASSETS: $6.2b. TOTAL
PARTICIPANTS: 38,884. EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTION: 9.24% of pay to
401(a). RECORDKEEPERS: TIAA, Fidelity, AIG. ADVISER: CAPTRUST.
When Lisa Joe, director of retirement programs and services,
joined the University System of Georgia (USG) in 2014, she
inherited a complex setup. USG had 78 voluntary retirement
plans, 13 recordkeepers among those plans and 600 investment
options. But USG embarked on its Retirement Plans
Modernization Project. Last year, the 78 plans merged into
one systemwide 403(b) plan and one 457(b) plan. USG consolidated
the number of plan providers to three and narrowed
the investment options into four tiers: an active-management
and a passive management tier, each with about 24 options;
a target-date fund tier; and a self-directed brokerage tier. It
also reduced participant fees by $7 million while increasing
transparency. -JW
Nonprofit DC <$500mm
Cobleskill Regional Hospital
Cobleskill, New York
PLAN: 403(b). PLAN ASSETS: $7.9mm. PARTICIPANTS: 293. PARTICIPATION
RATE: 93%. AVERAGE DEFERRAL RATE: 5.22%. EMPLOYER
CONTRIBUTION: 3% nonelective contribution. RECORDKEEPER: TIAA.
ADVISER: HANYS Benefit Services.
Cobleskill Regional Hospital employs many low-wage earners,
yet its 403(b) plan has a 93% participation rate. To encourage
participation, it chose a default deferral rate substantial enough
for participants to begin to save, but low enough that they do not
stop contributing, says Christine Pirri, vice president, nonclinical
operations. To help motivate new employees to stay enrolled,
the sponsor requires that they meet with a staff member from
recordkeeper TIAA. These and other plan-design changes came
after the plan moved to " affiliate pricing " for its recordkeeping
and investments in 2018. As TIAA works with another, much
larger, hospital in the system, Cobleskill was able to negotiate for
the same investments and fees as the larger plan has. -JW
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