Wisconsin Coalition of Annuitants

August 18, 2025 Minutes

www.wicoa.org

Meeting called to order by the Chair Diane Wilcenski at 9:40a.m.

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES PRESENT: Barbara Bird, DOT; Jean Grosklaus, West Allis Retirees; Paul Haubrich, UW Milwaukee Retiree’s Assoc.; Brian Holmes, Epsilon Sigma Phi; Bruce Johnson, SWIB Retiree; Allen Knop, WEAC-Retired; Kathy Kreul, WFT/AFT Retirees; Jack Lawton, ACE; Laurie Mayberry, Past President, UWRA; John Maydak, West Allis Retirees; Fred Nepple, OCI; Kevin Niemi, President Elect, UWRA; Dee Pettack, WSAA; Elaine Reiter, Kettle Moraine Retired; Robert Schaefer, WI Assoc of Retired Conservationists and State Engineering Association; Roger Springman, WFT/AFT Retirees; Jeanne Stangl, Dodge County Area REA; Diane Wilcenski, WREA; Rick Wojciak, DNR; Christopher Wren, Wisconsin State Attorneys Association; and wicoa.org

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES NOT PRESENT: Robert Beglinger, AFT-R; James Blank, Bay Lakes United Educators-R; Dave Bosanko, Retired Professional Fire Fighters of WI; Robert Brooks, Central Wisconsin Center Retirees; Sandy Drew, SWIB Retiree; Ed Frank, WI Assoc of Retired Conservationists; Rick Klemme, Epsilon Sigma Phi; Dick Kratz, WI Retired Corrections Personnel; Tara Leithold, Kettle Moraine Retirees; Mary Czynszak-Lyne, UWRA; Lucrecia Mattson, UW-Eau Claire Emeritus;, UWRA President; Jim Palmer, WI Professional Police Association Retired; , Sari Simer; Tom Speranza, Retired Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin; Joe Strohl, Retired Professional Fire Fighters of WI; Jim Thiel, Association of Career Employees; Clara Welch, Beloit Area REA

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES EXCUSED;

Roll Call by Zoom (Rick)

Approval of the June Minutes: Minutes approved as printed.

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

Tarna began the meeting discussing the budget that was signed by the Governor on July 3, 2025. The budget included $71 million one-time funding to replace ETF’s antiquated pension administration system.

Tarna provided an update on the pension administration system. As previously communicated, ETF completed the RFP process. There were two vendors selected to participate in a proof of concepts exercise. ETF will provide the vendors specific tasks to see how they perform. The most successful vendor will likely be awarded a contract by May 2026.

The Insurance Administration System went live for UW members on July 1, 2025. It was a successful launch. State members will go live on May 1, 2026. All other members will go live on July 1, 2026.

There are currently four Return-to-Work bills. There has much discussion regarding what changes should be made. Rep. Wittke recently introduced an amendment that would remove limiting returning to work without having to suspend the annuity after 60 months from AB 196. ETF continues to monitor the proposals.

The Group Insurance Board met on August 13, 2025. They are reviewing the state and local insurance plan designs to consider possible changes to improve program sustainability.

The GIB approved an increase in group life insurance premiums for both state and local members.

Additionally, ETF is transitioning the pre-tax savings accounts managed by Optum to TASC, a Madison based business.

Tarna was asked how many ETF retirees are over the age of 100 years old at the last meeting. The answer is there are over 100 retirees over the age of 100. There are two members that are 107!

ETF continues to monitor the impact of The Big Beautiful Bill on our retirement system.

Guest: Chris Preisler, Senior Communications Specialist, SWIB

Performance final returns as of June 30, 2025 Returns on a Five-year Basis

Core 7.4% Benchmark 6.6% Core 9.1% Benchmark 8.2%

Variable 9.7% Benchmark 9.4% Variable 14.5% Benchmark 14.4%

Preliminary peek of returns as of July 31, 2025 Returns on a Five-year Basis

Core 7.87% Benchmark 7.2% Core 8.4%

Variable 11.31% Benchmark 11.1% Variable 13.6%

Assets Under Management

Core Fund 135.5B Variable Fund 11.7B for a total of 147.2 B in retirement fund assets.

Chris stated that despite all the turbulence and noise out there, the Stock Market continues to do pretty well. In fact, in some cases, they are experiencing record weeks. Chris also stated that what the future of the next few months looks like is unpredictable.

SWIB is starting to see some of the impacts of some of the tariffs that have been put into place. The question is whether those impacts will continue to ramp up. There are predictions on rate cuts coming. Goldman Sachs is still predicting 2 or 3 cuts yet this year and two more cuts in 2026.

It looks like the numbers for the trust funds are doing pretty well and are weathering all the outside noise.

With everything going on and all the outside noise, SWIB will be doing another Market Podcast at the beginning of October. Remember these are the smaller quick hit podcasts that SWIB started this year. These podcasts are done at the end of each quarter. The goal is to have the fourth quarter podcast completed in early December to give everyone a heads up as to how the markets and SWIB are doing.

There is going to be one larger podcast coming out before the end of the year. It is going to be slipped in between the two market updates. This will be released sometime in October or November. Chris is hoping that this podcast will be on AI. This podcast will discuss how SWIB uses AI and the impact that AI has. SWIB has just rolled out a plan and procedures for using AI.

The next Board meeting will be September 9th and 10th. You can find the materials on the SWIB website.

In October the Board with have their off-site board meeting. There they will do a deeper dive into asset allocation and things like that.

SWIB had another senior portfolio manager get some recognition. Kirk Wolff was named to the Institutional Investors Rising Stars and Chief Investment Officer’s Class of 2025 NextGens. Kirk works in private equity and co-investments, which have been a hot topic in the investment world. A lot of public pensions have been increasing their allocations to private equity in order to generate more returns.

Correspondence:

None

Old Business:

Diane asked if there was anything that we as a group wanted to do to follow up on the Medicare and Social Security Issues.

Jack Lawton commented that the subject is so vast. He feels that there is less thoughtful information out there right now that would make it a bigger task to get anything done.

Roger Springman suggested that since the ETF is looking at the insurance issues and what is happening because of the Big Beautiful Bill and its impact, that perhaps we should wait until we get their next report to see what they have discovered or what they are concerned about.

New Business:

Diane asked if anyone had seen the news this morning. Trump is considering banning mail in voting and ballot boxes. The question was raised if has the authority to do this. Please keep your eyes open for any news on this subject.

Annual Conference 2026

Bob Schaefer has agreed to be the chair of this committee. Jeanne Stangl and Diane Wilcenski volunteered to work on this committee with Bob. Other members who would also like to work on this committee are WELCOMED! Please let Bob know if you are interested.

Diane questioned if we should have a Zoom(virtual) or Hybrid(in person)format. The Zoom format takes two days to deliver the information. The Hybrid format takes one day. Bob Schaefer asked the question if everyone is happy with May meeting dates. He also mentioned where we could hold our meetings. Downtown is terrible because of the parking situation. Also mentioned were Bob’s church, Greenway Conference Center, and the American Family Building. With these we then need to investigate providing meals. Dee Pettack asked how many people attended our last in-person meeting. Rick said 120 people attended. He also pointed out that a total of 110 people attended the last Zoom conference.

Start thinking about topics for the conference.

Social Security

How to Contact your Legislators.

Treasurer Report:

Income/Expense 6/15/25-8/18/25

INCOME

Dues Income

TOTAL INCOME 0.00

EXPENSES

RSWProductions (see breakdown below) 464.00

TOTAL EXPENSES 464.00

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ASSETS

Savings Account 5.00

Checking Account - beginning balance 7306.74

Income 0.00

Expenses 464.00

Checking Account Balance as of 6/15/25 6842.74

TOTAL ASSESTS 6847.74

Organizations whose dues are outstanding for 2025:

Beloit Area Retired Educators Association

Dept of Industry, Labor and Human Relations Retirees (formerly DWD)

University of Wisconsin Eau Claire Emeriti Faculty

Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance

Diane Wilcenski and Dee Pettack will check with the groups that have outstanding dues.

Next Meeting:

September 15, 2025 at 9:30 AM via Zoom

Meeting adjourned at 10:11AM

Respectfully submitted,

Jeanne Stangl

WICOA Secretary.