Wisconsin Coalition of Annuitants

January 13, 2025, of the State Minutes

www.wicoa.org

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

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES PRESENT: Robert Beglinger, AFT-R; Barbara Bird, DOT; James Blank, Bay Lakes United Educators-R; Sandy Drew, SWIB Retiree; Jean Grosklaus, West Allis Retirees; Paul Haubrich, UW Milwaukee Retiree’s Assoc.; Bruce Johnson, SWIB Retiree; Allen Knop, WEAC-Retired; Jack Lawton, ACE; Tara Leithold, Kettle Moraine Retirees; Mary Czynszak-Lyne ; Laurie Mayberry, UWRA President; John Maydak, West Allis Retirees; Fred Nepple, OCI; Dee Pettack, SAA; Elaine Reiter, Kettle Moraine Retired; Sari Simer, 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: Dave Bosanko, Retired Professional Fire Fighters of WI; Robert Brooks, Central Wisconsin Center Retirees; Ed Frank, WI Assoc of Retired Conservationists; Brian Holmes, Epsilon Sigma Phi; Rick Klemme, Epsilon Sigma Phi; Dick Kratz, WI Retired Corrections Personnel; Kathy Kreul, WFT/AFT Retirees; Lucrecia Mattson, UW-Eau Claire Emeritus; Jim Palmer, WI Professional Police Association Retired; Robert Schaefer, WI Assoc of Retired Conservationists and State Engineering Association; Joe Strohl, Retired Professional Fire Fighters of WI; Clara Welch, Beloit Area REA

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES EXCUSED;

Roll Call: Taken by Rick

Approval of the December Minutes: Minutes approved as printed.

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

The 2025 legislative session began in the beginning of January. Jay Risch and Tarna are once again conducting WRS 101 meetings with the freshmen legislators. They explain the pension benefits and how ETF and SWIB work together to create the #1 pension system in the country. They also hand out the updated booklet Our Wisconsin Retirement System Strong for Wisconsin which details the risk sharing design, benefits for employees, employers and retirees, and the economic impact of the WRS in Wisconsin.

Governor Evers will be giving his State of the State Address on January 22, 2025. He will release his budget on February 18, 2025. After his budget address, the budget will be sent to the legislature for their consideration.

The Group Insurance Board will meet on January 15 to discuss contracts for the pharmacy benefit manager and Medicare Advantage and Medicare+ programs. They will meet again on February 26 to discuss changes in rates for 2026.The new Insurance Administration System is conducting end-to-end testing and is anticipated to be ready to go-live in July 2025.

Guest: Chris Preisler, Senior Communications Specialist, SWIB

Performance final returns as of November 31, 2024 Returns on a Five-year Basis

Core 10.52% Benchmark 9.34% Core 8.05% Benchmark 7.31%

Variable 22.15% Benchmark 21.56% Variable 12.31% Benchmark 12.43%

Assets Under Management

Core Fund $130.9B Variable Fund $11.4B for a total of $142.3B in retirement fund assets

Preliminary Numbers

The Core Fund looks like about 8.5% for the end of the year. The Variable Fund end of the year number looks like about 18.7. Final numbers will be posted by SWIB within the next few weeks.

Investors faced a number of challenges in 2024 including geopolitical conflicts, a presidential election, the Federal Reserve starting an interest rate cutting cycle, a continued bull stock market, and an U.S. economy that remained relatively strong.

New Podcast

A new podcast will be released before the end of the month. It will feature Edwin Denson who will reflect on 2024 and will discuss what he anticipates for 2025.

Goals for Investing in Wisconsin Report

In December, SWIB published a new Goals for Investing in Wisconsin Report. SWIB is required by state statutes to report biennially to the Governor and Legislature on a four-year plan for making investments in Wisconsin and to respond to comments solicited from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation on ways to support and grow Wisconsin’s economy. This new report is for fiscal years 2025-2028. The report looks mainly at investments in SWIB’s Wisconsin Private Debt and Wisconsin Venture Capital portfolios but does include information on Wisconsin investments across all asset classes. You can read the report at www.swib.state.wi.us/investments-in-wisconsin.

Correspondence: None

Old Business:

WICOA 2025 Annual Conference

The information about the WICOA 2025 Annual Conference was submitted to ETF and will appear in the January ETF/ SWIB newsletter.

Nick Lutes from the Board on Aging and Long-Term Care is unable to present at our conference.

Diane will contact people from AARP to find a speaker.

Start thinking of a recipient for the Blair Testin Award

Medicare Letter

I did not have the recording to help with the notes on this discussion. I am using the notes that I took during the discussion.

First of all, many thanks were given to this committee for all the hard work that they have put in on this important topic.

Changes that were suggested:

Page 1

Change title of letter to:

RE: Urgent Need for Reform of Medicare Advantage and Traditional Medicare

Add to end of paragraph 2: or a former local government employer.

Near end of paragraph 3: replace the word unique with medical

Page 6

Under Limited Healthcare Networks paragraph 3

Clarify or change the word whims

Page 8 – Appendix A

Spell out spell out all the acronyms of the groups

Page 9- Appendix B

Make sure a color copy is included in the packet.

The committee will go back and clean up the letter.

Intent is to send out the letter to Tammy Baldwin and Mark Pocan for review and suggestions.

Next step will be to send out the letter perhaps nation-wide and hold a press conference concerning the need of reform to Medicare Advantage and Traditional Medicare

A Motion was made to accept these steps. Motion was approved by show of hands.

New Business:

We are still in need of a Treasurer.

Treasurer Report:

Diane is working with Summit Bank. A death certificate is needed to access the account.

Statements from the past several months will also be requested.

Next Meeting:

February 17, 2025 at 9:30 AM via Zoom

Meeting adjourned at 10:13 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeanne Stangl

WICOA Secretary.