DA Memo - April 3, 2007

Changes with 2006 Member Annual Statements

KPERS’ new information system has allowed us to streamline the annual statement process and the actual statement itself. Here is a summary of the changes that might affect you.

If You Are a New Designated Agent
Each spring, KPERS provides members with an annual statement of their account. Statements are sent through employers because we do not maintain home addresses for members.

The statement highlights current member benefits and shows a member’s contributions, earned interest and beneficiary information. Members with at least ten years of service credit will also have retirement benefit estimates.

The New Process
Step 1: Most employers submitted annual contribution reports through KPERS’ new employer web portal. This is the first step in the annual statement process. Once KPERS receives your contribution report, we can begin generating member annual statements.

Step 2: AON Benefacts in Owings Mills, Maryland, is printing and shipping the statements to employers. Some employers will begin receiving statements the week of April 9. We will continue to print and ship statements as they are generated.

Step 3: When your shipment arrives, please distribute the statements. You may receive annual statements for employees who no longer work at your employer. We do not have a home address for them and you are our last point of contact. Please forward their statements to the last known address you have, and then call or e-mail us with the address so we can add it for next year. Thank you for making this extra effort to distribute these statements.

Sometimes an employee’s statement is not ready to print with the others. In that case, you will receive a list directly from KPERS that includes anyone who is missing in your shipment. In addition, we will also send an individual letter for each employee explaining the circumstances. AON will ship additional statements as soon as they are printed.

Step 4: This year, an MS Excel spreadsheet with statement information is not available. You can directly access all statements on the employer web portal. Each statement will be a PDF and an exact representation of the one that was sent to the member. We will have statements posted to the portal by the end of May. Please use this new feature for any reprints. You can view or print at any time.

The New Statement
The annual statement has a new look. We were able to combine the statement and the information guide into one simple publication. Vested and non-vested members have targeted information and each retirement system has its own customized statement.

With this new statement, there are still two benefit estimates, one using “Current” information and one that projects “Future” information, but the estimates are calculated differently than in the past. All estimates are based on the member’s birthday. If the member is currently eligible for benefits, we are looking at his 2007 birthday. The “Future” estimate will take into consideration the birthday in that given year.

To determine service credit, the “Current” estimate assumes that the member stopped working on December 31, 2006. The “Future” estimate includes service through the member’s birthday in the year in which he retires.

We have dropped the Social Security number and birth date in an effort to help protect members from identity theft in case a statement falls into the wrong hands. Statements will also be sealed in #10 window envelopes and sorted by department code, then alphabetically.

Each statement has a unique tracking number in the envelope window. We use this number for quality control. This number will also be helpful to you if you have employees with duplicate names (e.g. two employees with the name John Smith). If you send us a list of employees with duplicate names, we will return the list after adding corresponding tracking numbers and Social Security numbers. That way you’ll know which tracking number and statement goes with which person. Please e-mail your list to kpers@kpers.org or fax it to (785) 296-2422.

We Don’t Say “Thank You” Enough
Designated agents and additional signers provide much of the communication and education members receive. Thank you for your efforts and the many ways you help connect members with the Retirement System and their benefits.

Questions?
If you have any questions, please contact the KPERS InfoLine.
• Toll-free, (888) 275-5737
• In Topeka, 296-6166
• E-mail, kpers@kpers.org