Wisconsin Coalition of Annuitants

September 15, 2025 Minutes

www.wicoa.org

Meeting called to order by the Chair Diane Wilcenski at 9:31a.m.

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES PRESENT: Robert Beglinger, AFT-R; James Blank, Bay Lakes United Educators-R; Robert Brooks, Central Wisconsin Center Retirees; Sandy Drew, SWIB Retiree; Jean Grosklaus, West Allis Retirees; Brian Holmes, Epsilon Sigma Phi; Bruce Johnson, SWIB Retiree; Rick Klemme, Epsilon Sigma Phi; Allen Knop, WEAC-Retired; Jack Lawton, ACE; 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; 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: Barbara Bird, DOT; Dave Bosanko, Retired Professional Fire Fighters of WI; Mary Czynszak-Lyne, Secretary UWRA; Ed Frank, WI Assoc of Retired Conservationists; Paul Haubrich, UW Milwaukee Retiree’s Assoc.; Dick Kratz, WI Retired Corrections Personnel; Tara Leithold, Kettle Moraine Retirees; Lucrecia Mattson, UW-Eau Claire Emeritus; Laurie Mayberry, Past President, UWRA; Scott Hildebrand, UWRA President; Jim Palmer, WI Professional Police Association Retired; , Sari Simer, SWIB; Tom Speranza, Retired Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin; Roger Springman, WFT/AFT Retirees; Joe Strohl, Retired Professional Fire Fighters of WI; Jim Thiel, Association of Career Employees; Clara Welch, Beloit Area REA

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES EXCUSED; Kathy Kreul, WFT/AFT Retirees;

Roll Call: Attendance taken by Rick via Zoom.

Approval of the August Minutes: Motion to approve the minutes was made by Jack Lawton and seconded by Elaine Reiter. Minutes were approved as printed.

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

The next ETF Board Meeting is on October 2, 2025. The meeting is in-person and virtual. The Board is planning on reviewing ETF’s Strategic Plan. They will also provide an update on ETF customer experiences. Current pension processes will also be discussed. This will provide an overview what the new pension system will entail. Diana Felsmann will provide the Board with an update on pension matters that are trending in other pension systems. This will be something that the ETF will do quarterly. Tarna will provide the Board with a legislative report.

ETF is holding a town hall meeting on September 16, 2025. The offices will be closed during the morning. This is something that ETF does every other year. Bill Ford, who is the Board Chair will be providing remarks and team building exercises and then Mark Johnson, UW Women’s Hockey Coach will be the keynote speaker.

Tarna gave an update on the new Pension Administration System. ETF has secured funding for the system. On September 29th, ETF will be kicking off a six-week proof-of-concept phase with the two finalists for the Pension Administration System contract. The purpose of proof- of -concept is to gain a deeper understanding of which vendor and system would be the best fit for ETF. ETF chose to include a proof-of-concept phase for the Pension Administration System project based on the information collected during the proof-of-concept exercise for the Insurance Administration system. The information was very helpful determining which vendor would be best. On September 29, TELUS will begin and on October 6, Heywood will begin. Tarna will keep us updated as the vendors go through the process.

ETF currently has 16 ongoing recruitments and 4 vacant positions. The Department of Administration recently submitted the state compensation plan to JCOER. JCOER did meet and approve the general wage adjustments that the governor had already implemented. ETF is now waiting on JCOER to review the comp plan and schedule a meeting to act on that. Tarna will keep us updated on this. There are a few items in the comp plan that would be helpful for ETF employees, especially pay for the Trust Fund Specialists. ETF is hopeful that JCOER meets, and these items are approved.

Open Enrollment for the Group Health Insurance Plan is October 6th through October 31st.

The 2024 WRS Financial Report was just released. The Legislative Audit Bureau did an audit. It was clean, which is always good news.

The ETF Office of Strategic Health Policy reviewed the One, Big, Beautiful Bill and wrote a memo on it for the August meeting. There was only one provision that directly affected our program which related to dependent care and flexible spending accounts.

The other provisions related to Medicare had to do with an increase in payments to medical professionals under the Medicare physician fee schedule which basically counters the decrease that happened in 2025. Ultimately that increase is only for one year so, ETF is concerned that it could decrease the number of providers that accept Medicare because the payments aren’t going to keep up with inflation. ETF will continue to monitor this situation. It also freezes the expansion of a Medicare savings program which assesses low-income Medicare beneficiaries. Tarna believes that it will not affect our plan but it is something that the Office of Strategic Health Policy is monitoring.

Legislative-

2025 AB 196 was scheduled for an executive session but, then it was removed from that executive session. ETF is monitoring that. Tarna suggested that maybe they didn’t have the votes and removed it. She doesn’t know if there are going to be any additional amendments to it

Guest: Chris Preisler, Senior Communications Specialist, SWIB

Performance final returns as of July 31, 2025 Returns on a Five-year Basis

Core 7.89% Benchmark 7.17% Core 8.36% Benchmark 7.50%

Variable 11.31% Benchmark 11.07% Variable 13.57% Benchmark 13.60%

Assets Under Management

Core Fund 135.8B Variable Fund 11.4B for a total of 137.B in retirement fund assets

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

Core 10.33% Benchmark 9.53% Core 8.04% Benchmark 7.16%

Variable 14.29% Benchmark 13.98% Variable 12.81% Benchmark 12.79%

Chris stated that in spite of all the volatility in the news in terms of jobs, the economy and farm crisis, the stock market continues to perform really well. Wall Street recently reached some new records. The S&P was on pace for its best weekly performance since early August and also had its fifth positive week out of six. NASDAQ was on track for its second winning week in a row. The Dow Jones also had a positive week.

Since the markets are doing well, investors are now looking at the Feds decision concerning lowering the benchmark interest rate. Chris stated that SWIB feels that they are in a pretty good position as they enter the last quarter of the year.

Next Board Meeting will be Oct. 21 and 22. It is the annual board workshop... You can find the materials posted on the SWIB website.

SWIB is in the process of recording some new podcasts. The Q3 market update will be recorded soon. It should be posted about the second week in October. in November SWIB will have their final full podcast of the year. The focus will be on AI and how it is impacting the financial industry.

The communications team is redoing the SWIB website. It is time for a refresh! Chris is asking our group for input on what we like about the current website, what we don’t like, what we would like to see added, if we think it is user friendly, ease of navigation, finding specific information, comments or suggestions - all of it! Just send an email to Chris with your comments and ideas.

His email is chris.preisler@swib.state.wi.us

Correspondence:

Diane received an e-mail from the group that Willie Backes belonged to requesting information on the procedure to find a replacement to represent their group, AFSCME Retirees Subchapter 52. Diane is in communication with them as well as finding a replacement for the firefighter’s group

Old Business:

WCOA 2026 Annuitants Annual Meeting

Bob Schaefer has agreed to lead the committee on this event. There has not been a meeting yet to start the process. Once again, we will have the discussion of topics we would like to have presented, dates of the conference, as well as deciding if the conference will be held solely on zoom or with the hybrid model.

This opened a lively discussion. Most of the attendees agreed to hold the conference at the beginning of May.

Topics Suggested:

Social Security from the State Office who work with people with disabilities

Social Security

SWIB and ETF

*Numbers are about the same for attendance for both Hybrid and Zoom.

Hybrid Model

Do we want to have a face-to-face or Zoom Meeting?

Face-to-face meeting would be completed in one day.

Lunch would have to be served

We would need monitors for both in person and Zoom questions.

Zoom Meeting

The meeting would take place over two days.

We do not have to worry about parking.

Lunch would not be served.

With Covid still lurking, Zoom would be safer.

We would need one person to monitor questions

Venues suggested (if hybrid model is chosen)

American Family, Sun Prarie – has streaming capability

Downtown Madison

Greenway Conference Center, Middleton

Bob’s church- has streaming capability

New Business:

Brian Holmes mentioned a concern he had with the latest ETF Newsletter. On the back of the mailer was an ad from Costco directed to the Group Health Insurance Program Members that looked like an ad. He felt that members could have thought it was junk mail and thrown it out. He suggested that perhaps something of this nature could be displayed inside of the flyer to avoid confusion. Chris and Tarna will consult with Mark Lampkins, Communications Director of ETF.

Diane asked if we communicate with our groups what is discussed during our meetings. She suggested that perhaps we should be sharing a short summary of what is discussed. Perhaps what Tarna and Chris present would be a good place to start. It would keep the groups we represent updated and perhaps a little more involved.

Diane also mentioned that we also need to reinforce that our members need to read the WRS News as it contains some very important information.

Allen Knop asked if people are aware of the electric and water problems that communities are experiencing with the increase of AI storage facilities. James Blank’s wife is on the NRA Board. People are very concerned what the impact of these facilities will be.

Kevin Niemi suggested that we contact a retired environmental group of former DNR employees. They have a website wigreenfire.org Kevin will look into this.

Dee Pettack informed us that there is a bill in the State Legislature concerning this.

It is bill AB245

Treasurer Report:

Kathy Kruel notified Jeanne Stangl that there was no activity during the last month. Jeanne changed the dates. Below is the report.

Income/Expense 8/18/25 -9/14/25

INCOME

Dues Income

TOTAL INCOME 0.00

TOTAL EXPENSES 0.00

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ASSETS

Savings Account 5.00

Checking Account - beginning balance 6842.74

Income 0.00

Expenses 0.00

Checking Account Balance as of 6/15/25 6842.74

TOTAL ASSESTS 6847.74

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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

Next Meeting:

October 20, 2025 at 9:30 AM via Zoom

Meeting adjourned at 10:12 AM

Respectfully submitted,

Jeanne Stangl

WICOA Secretary.