Wisconsin Coalition of Annuitants

March 16, 2026 Minutes

www.wicoa.org

Meeting called to order by Chair Diane Wilcenski at 9:31AM

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES PRESENT: Robert Beglinger, AFT-R; Barbara Bird, DOT; Sandy Drew, SWIB Retiree; Scott Hildebrand, UWRA President; Bruce Johnson, SWIB Retirees; Rick Klemme, Epsilon Sigma Phi; Allen Knop, WEAC-Retired; Jack Lawton, ACE; Mary Czynszak-Lyne, Secretary UWRA; Fred Nepple, OCI; Kevin Niemi, President Elect, UWRA; Dee Pettack, WSAA; Elaine Reiter, Kettle Moraine Retired; Sari Simer, ETF; Roger Springman, WFT/AFT Retirees; Jeanne Stangl, Dodge County Area REA; Jim Thiel, Association of Career Employees; Diane Wilcenski, WREA; Rick Wojciak, DNR; Christopher Wren, Wisconsin State Attorneys Association; and wicoa.org

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES NOT PRESENT: James Blank, Bay Lakes United Educators-R; Dave Bosanko, Retired Professional Fire Fighters of WI; Robert Brooks, Central Wisconsin Center Retirees; Sue Conrad, WI AFSCME Retirees Chapter 32; Ed Frank, WI Assoc of Retired Conservationists; Paul Haubrich, UW Milwaukee Retiree’s Assoc.; Brian Holmes, Epsilon Sigma Phi; Dick Kratz, WI Retired Corrections Personnel; Tara Leithold, Kettle Moraine Retirees; Diane Liebert, AFSCME Subchapter 52: Lucrecia Mattson, UW-Eau Claire Emeritus; Laurie Mayberry, Past President, UWRA; Jim Palmer, WI Professional Police Association Retired; Tom Speranza, Retired Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin; Robert Schaefer, WI Assoc of Retired Conservationists and State Engineering Association; Clara Welch, Beloit Area REA

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES EXCUSED; Jean Grosklaus, West Allis Retirees; Kathy Kreul, WFT/AFT Retirees; John Maydak, West Allis Retirees;

GUESTS; Tarna Hunter, Chris Preisler, Sari Simer

Roll Call: Taken by Rick

Approval of the March Minutes: Minutes approved as printed.

GUEST: Tarna Hunter, Director of Budget and Management, ETF 

·         The title for John Voelker’s presentation for the WICOA Annual Conference is The WRS Blueprint for Building and Maintaining a Reliable Retirement System

·         Group Insurance Board held a regular meeting two weeks ago to take action on plan design changes. At that meeting the Board wanted more information from ETF regarding proposed plan design changes.

·         · An additional special meeting was held on Friday, March 13, 2026. At this meeting, the Board approved a program call the Access Guidance Program. It’s for non-Medicare formulary for pharmaceutical benefits that provides a mechanism for members to maximize copay assistance.

·         Some pharmaceutical companies provide copay assistance to help with high-cost drugs. Navitus worked with ETF to design a program to maximize the copay assistance and allow the copay assistance to apply to the out-of-pocket payment requirements. The Group Insurance Board approved this. The GIB also approved 2027 plan design changes.·

·         The following changes are intended to decrease plan costs: The deductible will increase from $250 to $400 for singles and from $500 to $800 for families. There is also a small increase in the out -of-pocket limits and a small increase in Level 1 pharmacy co-pays from $5 to $10.

·         · The GIB also approved covering GLP-1. This is medication for obesity. It will be included in the 2027 plan.

·         · Bill Ford, who is the chair of the ETF board, approved the increases for annuity adjustments. There is going to be a 2.1% annuity increase for the core fund and an 18% increase for the variable fund. These increases will take place on May 1st.

·         · There are two upcoming ETF board meetings. The first one is a special meeting on March 19th at 9am which will primarily be held in closed session. The executive committee has met twice so far to prepare the whole ETF Board on Secretary recruitment.

·         · The Executive Committee will be sharing their ideas on how to proceed with the secretary recruitment at the March 19th meeting.

·         · Another meeting will be held on March 26th, which will be a joint meeting with Wisconsin Retirement and Teacher Retirement and ETF Board. The ETF Board will also be having a stand-alone meeting. Some of the topics for this meeting include a presentation from SWIB leadership on the 2025 WRS investment performance and a 2026 outlook. Also included is an overview of the new employer onboarding process, the 43rd Annual Valuation of retired lives from ETF actuaries, and then a duty disability experience study and reserve policy. The ETF will then present their annual comprehensive financial report to the Board.

·         · This will be an in-person meeting as well as virtual options for watching it.

·         · The Insurance Administration System is still on track for the Department of Administration to go live on May 1st and then everyone else including retirees and local governments on July 1st.

·         · The pension administration is still working out contract negotiations with Heywood who is ETF’s preferred vendor. ETF was hoping to have these done by the end of March, but it looks like it will probably extend into April. These negotiations are very important as you must include everything that you need.

·         · Legislative Status – The Senate committee me on the internal auditor bill last week and recommended passage. It ended up being a party-line vote. Three Republicans recommended passage and two Democrats did not. The bill did pass in the Assembly. It has been eight years since Tarna has been trying to get this bill passed. Tarna expects the ETF law revision items to get passed and become law. Return to Work Bill is dead. So, everything will be starting over next session.

·         · Diane Wilcenski asked Tarna if she had any guesses on the timeline for hiring John Voelker’s replacement. Tarna replied that the Board has had meetings to discuss strategy for hiring his replacement but there hasn’t been much information. More to come later.

·         · Sandy Drew asked if the agency is taking a position on the independent auditor. Tarna replied that this has been included in the last three budgets, and the governor has also included it in his budget. Tarna feels that what makes this hard to pass this session is the classification of that position.

Guest: Chris Preisler, Senior Communications Specialist, SWIB

Performance final returns as of January 31,2026 Returns on a Five-year Basis

Core 1.44% Benchmark 1.34% Core 7.52% Benchmark 6.8%

Variable 2.91% Benchmark 2.96% Variable 12.56% Benchmark 12.52%

Assets Under Management

Core Fund $143.3B Variable Fund $13.1B for a total of $156.4B in retirement fund assets

Sneak Peak of Preliminary returns as of February 28, 2026 Returns on a Five-year Basis

Core 2.84% Benchmark 2.59% Core 7.57% Benchmark 6.87%

Variable 4.10% Benchmark 4.12% Variable 12.16% Benchmark 12.16

· There are a lot of things going on in the world since the end of February that have affected the markets.

· The SWIB Board of Trustees meets tomorrow and Wednesday. Board materials are available online at www.swib.state.wi.us/meetings. This meeting includes investment performance and market updates. The meeting will also include Callan’s annual report to the Board.

·Incentive compensation will be discussed at the Compensation and Workforce Development Committee meeting on Tuesday morning.

· Chris mentioned at the last meeting that the incentive compensation will be discussed. The Compensation and Workforce Development Committee meets on Tuesday. They will take up the recommendation on incentive compensation from Edwin. Then the board will vote on that on Wednesday.

· Chris will give us a heads up or will give Diane an email with some information on incentive compensation as soon as it comes out. There will also be something posted on the SWIB website.

· Chris wanted to follow up on a question he got last month from Sandy Drew regarding any proposed legislation that might have an impact on SWIB. Chris did chat with Jay Risch, SWIB’s Communications and Government Relations Manager, and he reminded him that in the 2025-2026 state legislative session, legislators considered three different bill drafts related to proxy voting. Two of them would have placed new significant reporting requirements on SWIB with respect to its proxy voting, and one would have placed various reporting and other requirements on proxy advisors, all three of which would have raised SWIB’s costs in this area. SWIB visited with the bills' authors to discuss the bills and SWIB's Corporate Governance policies in general.

None of the bills received a committee hearing in either house. The Assembly adjourned for the session in February. The Senate's last floor day is scheduled for tomorrow (3-17) and these bills aren't on the calendar. That means these bills are dead for the session. The next legislative session starts in January 2027. Whether legislators decide to introduce bills on this topic again remains to be seen.

Correspondence: None

Old Business: 2026 WICOA Annual Conference

·         Speakers for May 13^th are John Voelker (ETF) and Katie Gaertner (IT)

·         Speakers for May 14^th are Edwin Denson (SWIB) and Jeff Kersten (Scams and Fraud)

·         Rick will get information from the speakers to put on the website.

·         Rick has a plan in place to get the final announcement about the conference out to those who have signed up and to previous attendees.

·         Diane reminded us to contact people in our group about the conference to try to boost attendance

·         There are 27 people pre-registered for the conference at this point.

New Business:

·         Sandy Drew mentioned that there is currently a bill in the Senate dealing with crypto machines.

·         This bill AB968 is scheduled for final passage tomorrow that will deal with cryptocurrency kiosks that are prevalent in many gas stations and some drugstores.

·         This bill would set some criteria for these machines and would set the limit that a person could invest.

·         Allen Knop mentioned that he believed that the limit was $500.

·         Diane Wilcenski asked if there were any questions on the conference.

·         A reminder WICOA will not have a meeting in May due to the conference.

·         Chris Preisler and Diane Wilcenski discussed the possibility of having a schedule for topics that people would like to hear about from SWIB.

·         Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

·         What should we be watching out for as a group?

·         If you have any ideas, please send them to Diane and she will forward them to Chris.

·         Diane also asked if there were any other issues that we should be watching out for as a group? Pensions? Issues that reflect what retirees need to be aware of? We can then our groups know what is happening.

·         Two suggestions were Medicare in general and Social Security Funding.

·         Elaine Reiter suggested letting people know about the scam and fraud session. She also mentioned the negatives associated with Medicare Advantage and the financial impacts it has on Medicare.

·         Kevin Niemi mentioned that there were a lot of changes to IRS income tax that affected retirees. He would like to know the impact that these changes had on individuals.

·         Sandy Drew suggested that we learn more about the SAVE America Act which is a proposed federal bill aimed at changing how Americans vote in federal elections. This bill would have a major impact on women who took their husband’s last name when they got married as the bill requires that last names are required to be the same as the name on your birth certificate.

Treasurer Report:

Income/Expense 3/17/26-4/20/26

Savings Account 5.00

Checking Account - beginning balance 6942.74

Income 50.00

Expenses 0.00

Checking Account Balance as of 1/12/26 6992.74

TOTAL ASSESTS 6997.74

Next Meeting:

April 20, 2026 at 9:30 AM via Zoom

Meeting adjourned at 10:05 AM

Respectfully submitted,

Jeanne Stangl

WICOA Secretary.