Welcome!
First off, welcome to our new home on the web. Thanks to the hard work of our Communications and Technology teams, as well as the County's move to a more-modern web hosting platform, we are finally delivering on my goal to provide you with a much improved retirement website. There are still some things to be updated and new features to add, but hopefully you will see this as a good first step forward. In the not-too-distant-future, we will be providing you with an online survey to get your feedback on how we are doing web-wise.
As we launch this new site, one of my goals is to use this space to provide you with updates and information regarding your benefits or anything else of interest. The following is my first such update.
Update
There has been a lot of conversation recently regarding your retirement benefits, both as part of the County's budget process and in several Board of Supervisors' Personnel Committee meetings. The Board has appointed a work group to study retirement benefits, with representatives from employees and retirees. The work group is in its early stages and is expected to complete its work by March of 2018. I cannot predict what will come from this work group, nor can I presume to know what the Board may or may not do in the future. What I can do, however, is provide you with the following basic facts.
There are No Changes Currently Being Made to Retirement Benefits
While the Board of Supervisors has been presented with a lot of facts and figures about our three retirement systems during several of their recent Personnel Committee meetings, nothing is happening currently that would result in changes to your retirement benefits. The Board has been presented with a number of possible future changes to benefits, but any such changes were only for future employees hired after some yet-to-be-determined date in the future. This means that any changes that might be made would not change any benefits for current employees, retirees, or beneficiaries. Also, while there has been discussion of the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP), this is defined in County Code with no end date.
We (Staff) Cannot Change Your Retirement Benefits
No staff here in Retirement Systems, including myself, can make changes to the retirement benefits that you are or will be receiving. Nor, for that matter, can any other employee of the County make such changes. We simply follow the formulas and provisions specified in County Code in determining what you are entitled to receive in retirement. If you are interested in what the Code specifies, see the following links for the system that you are part of:
Only the Board of Supervisors Can Change Retirement Benefits
The Board of Supervisors is the only entity that can make changes to retirement benefits or, for that matter, anything else included in County Code. Furthermore, the process to make any such changes takes time and would occur within the Board's overall public meeting process. The point here being that if any changes are going to be made, those changes will take time and there will be opportunities for employees, retirees, citizens, and other stakeholders to provide input before being acted on by the Board.
Your Retirement Future is Secure
As employee or retiree members of one of Fairfax County's three retirement systems, your retirement benefit is specifically defined in County Code and will continue for as long as you live. Furthermore, depending upon the system that you are a member of and the options you choose upon retirement, your spouse and/or beneficiaries could be entitled to a benefit upon your death for as long as they live. In other words, it is the County's responsibility to make sure that there is enough money available to make these payments.
The Board of Supervisors has established Boards of Trustees for each of the three retirement systems; comprised of citizens, employees, and retirees. They serve to oversee each plans' investments, to ensure that staff is providing benefits to retirees as defined in County Code, and to hold myself, our outside investment management companies, our actuarial experts, and all other plan fiduciaries responsible for making all of this possible.
As with all pension plans and investors around the Country, our three retirement systems sustained significant investment losses during the 2008 financial crisis. Because of this, our three systems went from being fully funded (100 percent at least) to being between 70 and 81 percent funded as of June 30, 2017. We have a very qualified group of investment professionals working for us now who have made a number of changes since 2008 to limit any possible future losses as much as possible. They work every day, under the Boards of Trustees' leadership, to do everything to maximize the systems' investment returns.
The County is Committed to Funding Its Retirement Systems
The Board of Supervisors has continued over the years to maintain its commitment to funding the County's three retirement systems. As a result of the investment losses incurred during the 2008 financial crisis, the amount of funding required to maintain this commitment has increased significantly. While this high level of funding will ultimately go down again by as much as 70 percent when the systems reach full (100%) funding, the budgetary impact to the County of maintaining this commitment has been very significant and will continue to be so for many years. As an employee and future retiree of Fairfax County myself, I very much appreciate this commitment and do not take it for granted.
My hope, in writing to our members, is to keep you informed about what is going on and to provide you with facts to inform your views on your retirement benefits. Beginning in the new year, we are undertaking a major effort to come out to you in your agencies to speak with you about your retirement benefits and answer any general questions that you might have. For specific guidance on your individual retirement benefits, we continue to offer classes, documents, and one-on-one counseling. If you have suggestions, questions, or concerns - please email me.
Sincerely,
Jeff Weiler
Executive Director - Fairfax County Retirement Systems
December 16, 2017