Retirement Services Division August 19, 2019 Meeting Minutes of the State Employees Retirement Commission Investment Subcommittee

ret div memo header

INVESTMENT SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

Date:  8/19/2019     Time: 10:30 a.m.
 
X  Regularly Scheduled   __ __ Special
 
Attendees: Was a quorum present?      Yes
 
Retirement Commission   Other Attendees
Charlie Casella Frank Picarelli, Segal Marco
Janet Andrews (via telephone) Joel Fein, Prudential
Michael Carey Jada Swinski, Prudential
Sandra Browne-Brewton Mike McCann, Prudential
Michael Bailey Vanessa Vargas, Segal Marco
Peter Adomeit (via telephone) Scott Mann, Prudential

Absent Commission Members
Sal Luciano

Comptroller's Office
Thomas Woodruff, Director, HPBSD
Margaret Haering, Counsel, HPBSD
Amy Cason, Associate ARBO, HPBSD
Rae-Ellen Roy, Asst. Director, HPBSD

Matters Discussed:  

Peggy Haering reported on the status of transfers from the Alternate Retirement Plan to the SERS plans under the SAG award. The Retirement Division reports that all transfers to SERS should be completed by the end of September. Thus far, transfers from ARP have totaled $264,000,000, including amounts invoiced to purchase grandfathering benefits.

At the conclusion of the SAG award and Hybrid Plan transfers, the ARP Transition Fund in the 457 and 403(b) Plans and ARP will be closed and remaining funds will be transferred to participants� prior investment allocations. The various measures taken by the committee throughout the SAG award process were successful in reducing transaction costs and limiting negative pressure on the Stable Value Fund�s crediting rate.

Mike McCann presented Prudential�s quarterly report, which included statistics on new plan enrollments, utilization of investment options, variations in asset allocation among plans, and GoalMaker selection. Joel Fein reported on performance of the GoalMaker portfolios. Scott Mann detailed the outreach efforts being made by Retirement Counselors to enroll new employees. The �Nearing Retirement� sessions have been extremely popular with employees and will continue through National Retirement Security Week. The plans� website will be upgraded in September 2019 to include financial wellness tools, and the Prudential app will be activated for members at the same time.

Vanessa Vargas of Segal Marco reported on market conditions for the second quarter of 2019. She indicated that markets are feeling the effects of uncertainty over the trade war and its duration.

Frank Picarelli of Segal Marco conducted the quarterly review of plan investments. There are no funds on the watch list as of 7/01/2019. The fixed income funds and equity funds performed well during the second quarter. Tom Woodruff asked Segal to perform an optimization analysis of the Stable Value Fund in light of the fact that we will be issuing a request for proposals (RFP) shortly.

Charlie Casella asked whether there was anything else we might do to enhance the plans. Scott Mann recommended adding auto enrollment for new employees and auto escalation of contributions for existing members. Peggy commented that auto escalation was not currently possible under the CORE-CT system and that auto enrollment would likely require a legislative change or collective bargaining agreement.

Upon motion and second the Committee voted to amend the agenda to discuss the upcoming RFP for the defined contribution plans. Upon motion and second the Committee voted to go into executive session to discuss the upcoming procurement and to allow our investment adviser (Segal Marco) to remain.

The Committee came out of executive session. No votes were taken during that session.

Upon motion and second the meeting was adjourned at 12:05 p.m.

Materials Reviewed:

Prudential Quarterly Report
Segal Marco Analysis of Investment Performance

Decisions voted upon:   

None

 

Return to Retirement Services Division Home Page
Return to Comptroller's Home Page