Wisconsin Coalition of Annuitants

December 15, 2025 Minutes

www.wicoa.org

Meeting called to order by Chair, Diane Wilcenski at 9:32a.m.

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES PRESENT: Barbara Bird, DOT; James Blank, Bay Lakes United Educators-R; Jean Grosklaus, West Allis Retirees; 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; 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: Robert Beglinger, AFT-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; Paul Haubrich, UW Milwaukee Retiree’s Assoc.; Scott Hildebrand, UWRA President; Rick Klemme, Epsilon Sigma Phi; Dick Kratz, WI Retired Corrections Personnel; Tara Leithold, Kettle Moraine Retirees; Lucrecia Mattson, UW-Eau Claire Emeritus; Jim Palmer, WI Professional Police Association Retired; Tom Speranza, Retired Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin; Clara Welch, Beloit Area REA

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES EXCUSED; Mary Czynszak-Lyne, Secretary UWRA;

GUESTS; David Maradiaga, ETF; Renee Walk, ETF: Timothy Steiner, ETF; Robin Winiarczyk

Roll Call: Taken by Rick

Approval of the October Minutes: Minutes approved as printed with a correction on page 4 for the speaker times. John Voelker, ETF will speak on May13, 2026 from 9:30 AM –10:30 AM and Edwin Denson, SWIB will speak on May 14, 2026 from 9:30AM – 10:30AM. Jeanne will email everyone the page with the corrections made.

Tarna introduced the guests that she invited to the meeting.

David Maradiaga, Chief Information Security Officer, ETF

Renee Walk, Director of the Office of Strategic Health Policy, ETF

Tim Steiner, Dircctor of Budget, Procurement and Contract, ETF

David was invited to provide an update on what ETF is doing to keep information safe and the security approach at ETF. He started with a slide presentation titled Protecting Retirement Savings from Cybercrime. The information that he shared with us comes directly from the FBI. The FBI has an annual report that they assemble for the Internet Crime Complaint Center. This is where all the information and statistics that David shared came from.

David shared that cybercriminals are targeting our retirement savings. There are rising numbers of cybercrime threats that are causing significant financial losses and emotional distress. There are protective measures to educate ourselves on as well as proactive steps to take to safeguard our savings.

ETF has many security measures to protect our funds. One is to have effective vendor safeguards to prevent third party vendors from getting into ETF’s system. Both ETF and ETF participants should be taking actionable steps to keep our funds safe. David pointed out that in order for us to understand the right steps to take, we must understand the risks.

In 2024, Americans over the age of 60 lost $4.9 Billion to online scams which was an increase of 43% from 2023. Seniors are attractive targets due to having substantial assets, having trust in others, having character traits like politeness, hesitancy to hang up and having limited technical knowledge. They are also hesitant to not tell others if they have been tricked or there has been some sort of fraud. Seniors need to recognize threats and develop protective strategies against cybercrimes.

These are the major scams out there at the moments:

Cryptocurrency and Investment Scams - Loss of $2.8 billion in 2024

Fake Tech Support Scams – Loss of $982 million in 2024

Romance Scams – Loss of $389 million in 2024

Business Email Compromise and Government Impersonation

Everything on the list is using some form of psychological manipulation or technical deception. It also encourages you to act on it immediately or with some sense of urgency or causing the potential of loss.

From 2023 to 2024, Cryptocurrency fraud rose 72%, tech support (pop-up windows on your computer or phone) rose 66%and investment fraud rose 48%.

ETF Safeguards Highlights

Yearly Awareness Training for all staff - It has become a culture within ETF in everything they do, they do in a safe and secure manner.

Attack Simulations- Routine phishing simulations to all staff to test their response to real world phishing attacks. They also conduct tabletop exercises to test incident response preparedness.

External Penetration Testing – ETF conducts third-party penetration testing of their IT and security operations. This company tries to attack ETF daily. ETF learns from these tests and then improves on these areas.

Cyber Liability Insurance Policy- For years ETF has maintained a cyber liability insurance policy which allows the safeguard of working with a safety net. This policy covers financial losses along with a well-trained cyber incident response staff.

ETF Vendor Safeguards

High Standards from the start- Before beginning a partnership with any service provider or vendor, ETF has a high standard of security and controls that are asked of any potential contractor. They are asked in the RFP(Request For Proposal) to address all the security questions asked.

Strong Contract Provisions- ETF contract outlines clear cyber security safeguards that must be maintained for the life of the contract.

Service Provider Assessment- ETF perform yearly security assessments on all vendors which are done by an independent third party. These reports allow ETF to measure and monitor cyber risk on an ongoing basis.

Continuous Improvement – The ETF reviews the report from the third-party review and looks how they can develop continuous improvement with their vendors to make sure that safeguards are in place. AI has made its way into threating security now. The hackers are constantly evolving and changing methods, so safety procedures are constantly evolving and are looking for improvements in order to keep the hackers out.

Preventive Measures for us!!

Avoid Unsolicited Requests- Never send money or cryptocurrency of any kind to unsolicited callers. If you receive the phone call and if you didn’t make the phone call, you can’t be confident of who it is on the other side.

Recognize Legitimate Agencies- Legitimate companies or governments don’t demand gift cards or Bitcoin.

Safe Response Actions- If you are in doubt, if you are suspicious about something, you can hang up, and it’s super important that you can stop what is occurring by having the presence of mind to say this doesn’t sound legitimate, this doesn’t sound real. I am going to call my bank, financial institution, or whatever and confirm that I have a good number and am speaking to a good, trusted business. You can hang up at any point.

Simple Steps to Protect yourself

Place a free credit freeze on major credit bureaus to reduce the risk of identity theft and financial fraud.

Two-Factor Authentication- Enable two-factor authentication on email and banking accounts to add a vital security layer against unauthorized access.

Avoid Pop-Up Scams – Avoid interaction with pop-up warnings by closing the browser to prevent exposure to phishing or malware.

Password Management & Family Safe Word- Use password managers for strong passwords and establish a family safe word with family. Have some sort of a password manager is a piece of technology of software that allows you to remember one password and then it will fill in the passwords and have unique passwords. Don’t have one password that you use for all accounts.

Having a family safe word is extremely important due to the use of AI by cybercriminals. What is happening right now is that AI is able to take a voice of a family member off of social media and recreate that voice of a loved one. So when you get a phone call asking for money for various reasons. You can say that the voice sounds like my son, but what’s our safe word? You know that the safe word let’s me know if it is really you.

Never share your social security number unless you are at a trusted location.

ETF employees are okay with being tested. They have a culture of risk avoidance and know that mistakes cause improvement. Only .2% of ETF employees have fallen for a phishing scam. Tarna stated that the staff is responsible for security and protecting our information. She thanked Dave for building that culture.

ETF monitors all vendors and who these vendors have contracts with including insurance. The more transparent the vendors are, the higher the chance of being chosen.

Diane Wilcenski requested a list of things that the WREA membership can do to keep themselves safe.

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

Most of what Tarna shared with us last month still holds true for this month. The Wisconsin Retirement Board, Teachers Retirement Board and ETF met on Thursday. They went through fiduciary training, and they reviewed and approved board policies. Michael Collins, who is on the Teacher’s Retirement Board and is also the appointee to the State of Wisconsin Investment Board gave the annual update. Michael is a professor at UW-Madison, LaFollette. Dave Maradiaga provided a security update in closed session to the ETF Board.

The insurance administration system is moving along and is on track. ETF is wrapping up the proof of concepts for the pension administration system. It is down to two vendors. The Strategic Council is currently reviewing the recommendations from the evaluation team. Tarna will have more information on the possible next vendor for the pension administration implementation soon.

The Legislative Update - Return to Work continues to be a topic. Right now, we have 4 bills. We have the 3 Republican Bills. The Assembly and the Senate both caucused and apparently had robust discussions on the topic. Right now, you have the assembly. You have a couple of different bills and a couple of different authors. Tarna feels that they are looking for ways to move their bill forward. This includes possible amendments, changes to the break in service, and possibly increasing the break in service. Tarna has not heard anything in a month. We have a couple of months left in this session. Tarna stated that it would be a very heavy lift for the legislators to get something together and agreed upon. The Senate has had their own discussions and the Assembly has had their own. Tarna was not sure if they are talking to each other.

If you remember, for the last three budgets, ETF included a request in their budget to make their internal auditor independent. Joint Finance took it out in the beginning, which has been standard practice. One of the joint finance members stated that this was good governance and good policy and asked ETF to come back after the budget was done. So, a co-sponsorship memo went out for that bill 10 days ago. Tarna thought that a couple of days was the deadline, so she was expecting some bill to be introduced. That bill makes ETF’s internal auditor report directly to the board. The board will have the authority to set the salary of that internal auditor. This is very similar to the structure of the secretary. ETF is pleased by this movement and hopefully it will proceed through the session and get signed by the governor.

February 25^th is the Group Insurance Board Meeting and March 26^th is the ETF Board Meeting.

Guest: Chris Preisler, Senior Communications Specialist, SWIB

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

Core 12.92% Benchmark 12.34% Core 9.20% Benchmark 8.41%

Variable 20.71% Benchmark 20.58% Variable 15.28% Benchmark 15.33%

Assets Under Management

Core Fund $140.7B Variable Fund $12.7B for a total of $153.4B in retirement fund assets

Sneak Peak of Preliminary returns as of November 30, 2025 Returns on a Five-year Basis

Core 13.83% Benchmark 13.06%

Variable 20.92% Benchmark 20.73%

The Federal Reserve Committee met last week and cut interest rates for the third time this year. We are at a three-year low on those. There was some dissension on the committee which led to a 9-3 vote. Investors and economists are watching closely the labor market and inflation as we enter 2026, there are some things to keep an eye on. President Trump will decide who will replace the Federal Chair, Jerome Powell. Kevin Hassett who is the National Economic Council Director, looks like he was a frontrunner. All the regional presidents were reappointed to their positions with exception of Atlanta’s regional president, Raphael Bostic who announced that he was retiring at the end of his term in February.

SWIB continues to watch the stock market. Tech stocks have been carrying the market but have stumbled a little bit. The S&P fell from its all-time high, so we are just kind of watching how things play out as we enter the final weeks of December.

Chris sat down with Todd Mattina, SWIB’s Head Economist and Asset and Risk Allocation Chief Investment Officer, and did a market update podcast with him. They touched on the job market, inflation, the Federal Reserve making decisions and what might happen going into 2026 with the change in Federal Reserve Chairman. Todd also gives some insight into what he’s thinking in terms of interest rate cuts and other issues that could impact the markets in the new year. This podcast is available now and is about 10 minutes in length.

Part One of the AI podcast is out right now. It focuses on AI in the financial world and at SWIB. Part Two of the AI podcast is scheduled to be released on Dec. 29. This one will be a little more specific to how SWIB uses AI.

The Board of Trustees meets this week on Tuesday, Dec.16 and Wednesday, Dec.17. There is going to be a slight asset allocation switch that they are making to public equities. That will be on the table for discussion.

Roger Springman mentioned that the metals markets, the rare earth market, the copper market, silver, and gold have been really active. He asked Chris if SWIB has anyone who tracks these markets. Chris said that he would check into it. Allen Knop mentioned the book Power Metals that he felt was very interesting.

Correspondence: None

Old Business: 2026 WICOA Annual Conference

Roger started the conversation regarding speakers for the conference. He was tasked to investigate speakers who might be available to speak on data centers. Roger is an active member of CUB and ended up talking with the executive director, Tom Content. They do a lot of work on data center analysis and rate requests. They also work with local governments that are challenging data centers and have knowledge of environmental issues as well. Tom stated that he would be available in May to present to our group.

Roger stated that he used to work for the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Roger mentioned to the group that he was very aware of the role DATCAP has with consumer protection. Roger was able to get in contact with the Public Information Coordinator of DATCAP’s Consumer Protection Division. His name is Jeff Kersten. Roger shared with Jeff that WICOA was looking for speakers for our annual conference. Jeff told Roger that he would be willing to speak on scams and frauds to our group next year.

Sari Simer put in a request to Katie Gaertner, who is a professor at the University of Wisconsin that teaches courses there one of which is AI. Sari asked for a 30-minute presentation with a 10-minute question and answer session. Sari mentioned some areas that Katie could focus on. These were Understanding AI, the impact of AI on retirees in areas such as personal finance security, healthcare, and new technologies. And the finally the future landscape, how AI might change the world that our grandchildren will inherit. Katie wrote to Sari and stated that she would be very honored to present to our group.

Jim Thiel spoke next. He contacted Christopher Turner who is a UW practice Teacher and Librarian Specialist. Christopher has made a number of presentations to the State Bar Association, Both online and in-person. He was extremely clear on how AI is impacting the law profession. His specificity on that subject is clearly his strength. He has had other presentations beyond that which are more general in manner. Jim thought the he would be a good panel member that could clarify situations of fake news and fake law and how attorneys are being trained, and courts are being educated as to the problems with AI. Christopher would be available on the dates of the conference.

Bob Schaefer suggested Tom Content, Jeff Kersten, and Katie Gaertner as speakers. Scott Hildebrand for the UW Retirement Association thanked Roger for reaching out to Tom Content. The group decided that these three people would be speakers in addition to John and Edwin.

Tom would prefer the 14^th, Katie is available both days and Roger will contact Jeff to find out his availability.

Blair Testin Award

This award is given on behalf of WICOA for either outstanding work that people have done in the area of retirement or whatever.

Jeanne Stangl asked if ETF and SWIB had ever received the award. Jeanne stated that they do a lot for us. She said that ETF and SWIB would be her recommendation.

There was a discussion of who had received it in the past. Dick Kratz had the history and record of who received it. Jeanne found a copy of Dick’s email and will update it and then send it to the group.

There were no other suggestions. Diane said that she would give us time to think about who we would like to nominate and make the decision at the January meeting.

Diane is going to put the conference agenda together and send it to Mark Lamkins so it can be put in the newsletter.

New Business: None

Treasurer Report:

Income/Expense 11/18/25-12/15/25

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 10/19/25 6842.74

TOTAL ASSESTS 6847.74

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I have received checks from the following organizations but have not yet done a deposit:

American Federation of Teachers Retiree Council

Association of Career Employees

Central Wisconsin Center Retirees

Dodge Co. Area Retired Educators Association

Department of Transportation Retirees Association

Retired Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin

State Engineering Association

UW-Madison Retirement Association

Wisconsin Retired Educators’ Association

Wisconsin State Attorneys Association

No deposit has been made. There are 16 outstanding groups that have not paid. If your group has not paid, please contact the person that pays the dues.

Brian Holmes shared an article he had read in the Kiplinger Letter. It stated that the president signed an executive order that the federal government will stop receiving checks or issuing paper checks after September 2026. The alternative will be to have an IRS account. The group agreed to be on the lookout for this.

Next Meeting:

January 12,2026 9:30 AM via Zoom (Change due to Martin Luther King Day)

Diane wished everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Meeting adjourned at 10:59AM

Respectfully submitted,

Jeanne Stangl

WICOA Secretary.