Elk County retirement board says pension fund is healthy; approves 2025 contribution estimate and administrative fees
January 02, 2025 | Elk County, Pennsylvania
This article was created by AI summarizing key points discussed. AI makes mistakes, so for full details and context, please refer to the video of the full meeting. Please report any errors so we can fix them. Report an error »
The Elk County Retirement Board on Jan. 2 reviewed the county pension plan's recent performance and approved a package of routine administrative measures for 2025, including an estimated $600,000 actuarially determined contribution and several vendor fee items.
Pat Straub, county chief clerk and board secretary, opened the board's presentation with a performance overview, saying the plan's portfolio stood at $30,825,851 as of September and produced a weighted average return of 13.53% against a benchmark of 12.69%. "Our funded ratio is 91.3," Straub told the board. "I can also give this to the press because I think it's probably of interest for our retirees or soon to be retirees that the plan is in very good shape." The board heard that the investment adviser CS McKee outperformed the benchmark by about 84 basis points.
The nut of the discussion was whether to continue the county's existing contribution, interest-credit and administrative arrangements for 2025. Straub told the board the estimated actuarially determined contribution (ADC) for plan year 2025 is $600,000 and that the final ADC's figure would not be available until February 2025. Straub cautioned that a market downturn could raise the ADC quickly: "if we have a bad year or two in the stock market ... that could jump to $800,000 or a million dollars very quickly."
After the presentation the board unanimously approved a series of motions to maintain current plan provisions and vendor arrangements for 2025. Those approvals included: maintaining the existing benefit class and employee pretax contribution rate (7% by payroll deduction or a 414(h) pickup), accepting the estimated $600,000 ADC for 2025 (with authority to increase if the final actuary's figure exceeds the estimate), keeping the interest-credit rate on participant balances at 5.5% for the prior year and setting the rate on first- and last-year contributions at 2.775% (prorated by days worked), and authorizing payment of actuarial, custodial, trustee and investment management fees from plan assets.
The board also approved several administrative vendor items. It authorized printing and distribution of 2024 year-end individual benefit statements at $1.85 per statement, accepted Korn Ferry's 3% fee increase for actuarial services (moving the per-participant fee from $14.19 to $14.61 per month), and left the Affinity plan administration and participant recordkeeping fee unchanged at $6,000 for 2025 while indexing the 2026 fee to the November CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers).
Board members received an informational letter from Korn Ferry about an optional cost-of-living increase tied to the CPI-U. Korn Ferry's example showed a notional 3.4% increase effective January 2025 would require an immediate one-time cash payment to the fund of $387,080 to make the increase actuarially sound for retirees to date, and would raise the ADC by an estimated $415,143. Straub characterized that as informational only; the county must formally revisit the optional COLA provision once every three years.
Votes at a glance: the board recorded unanimous voice votes of "aye" on all motions taken during the meeting. The retirement board membership recorded for votes at the Jan. 2 meeting was Chair Fritz Lucker, Commissioner Mac Wiese, Commissioner Mary Grigebauer, Treasurer Matt Frey and Chief Clerk Pat Straub; each motion carried by voice vote with no recorded dissents.
The meeting closed with no public comment. The board set its next meeting for Thursday, July 24, 2025.
Pat Straub, county chief clerk and board secretary, opened the board's presentation with a performance overview, saying the plan's portfolio stood at $30,825,851 as of September and produced a weighted average return of 13.53% against a benchmark of 12.69%. "Our funded ratio is 91.3," Straub told the board. "I can also give this to the press because I think it's probably of interest for our retirees or soon to be retirees that the plan is in very good shape." The board heard that the investment adviser CS McKee outperformed the benchmark by about 84 basis points.
The nut of the discussion was whether to continue the county's existing contribution, interest-credit and administrative arrangements for 2025. Straub told the board the estimated actuarially determined contribution (ADC) for plan year 2025 is $600,000 and that the final ADC's figure would not be available until February 2025. Straub cautioned that a market downturn could raise the ADC quickly: "if we have a bad year or two in the stock market ... that could jump to $800,000 or a million dollars very quickly."
After the presentation the board unanimously approved a series of motions to maintain current plan provisions and vendor arrangements for 2025. Those approvals included: maintaining the existing benefit class and employee pretax contribution rate (7% by payroll deduction or a 414(h) pickup), accepting the estimated $600,000 ADC for 2025 (with authority to increase if the final actuary's figure exceeds the estimate), keeping the interest-credit rate on participant balances at 5.5% for the prior year and setting the rate on first- and last-year contributions at 2.775% (prorated by days worked), and authorizing payment of actuarial, custodial, trustee and investment management fees from plan assets.
The board also approved several administrative vendor items. It authorized printing and distribution of 2024 year-end individual benefit statements at $1.85 per statement, accepted Korn Ferry's 3% fee increase for actuarial services (moving the per-participant fee from $14.19 to $14.61 per month), and left the Affinity plan administration and participant recordkeeping fee unchanged at $6,000 for 2025 while indexing the 2026 fee to the November CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers).
Board members received an informational letter from Korn Ferry about an optional cost-of-living increase tied to the CPI-U. Korn Ferry's example showed a notional 3.4% increase effective January 2025 would require an immediate one-time cash payment to the fund of $387,080 to make the increase actuarially sound for retirees to date, and would raise the ADC by an estimated $415,143. Straub characterized that as informational only; the county must formally revisit the optional COLA provision once every three years.
Votes at a glance: the board recorded unanimous voice votes of "aye" on all motions taken during the meeting. The retirement board membership recorded for votes at the Jan. 2 meeting was Chair Fritz Lucker, Commissioner Mac Wiese, Commissioner Mary Grigebauer, Treasurer Matt Frey and Chief Clerk Pat Straub; each motion carried by voice vote with no recorded dissents.
The meeting closed with no public comment. The board set its next meeting for Thursday, July 24, 2025.
View full meeting
This article is based on a recent meeting—watch the full video and explore the complete transcript for deeper insights into the discussion.
View full meeting