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June, 2014 InFRE Update: NAGDCA Partners with InFRE to Release Whitepaper – Improving Retirement Readiness for State and Local Government Employees

The International Foundation for Retirement Education (InFRE) recently partnered with the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators, Inc. (NAGDCA) to release a whitepaper on improving retirement readiness for state and local government employees. The paper covers what it means to be retirement ready, how it can be measured, and how retirement readiness in the public sector differs from the private sector.

“As public employers begin to share more of the responsibility of preparing for retirement with their employees, defined contribution plan savings will need to play a greater role in how employees become retirement ready. Helping employees understand and score their personal retirement readiness status will also motivate them to take necessary action to improve projected outcomes,” said Kevin S. Seibert, CFP^®, CRC^®, CEBS, InFRE’s Managing Director.

The paper suggests that many public sector employees retiring in the future will be in jeopardy of not having adequate resources, and some may ultimately become somewhat dependent on their former employers in the form of social assistance. While public sector employers need to continue to use benefit packages as a way to attract and retain skilled workers, they must also find a balance in their communications to inform employees that without personal savings or other income sources, these benefits will likely not be sufficient to meet all of their future retirement income needs.

“The combination of changing benefits, retirees that are living longer and increases in medical expenses mean that public sector employers are facing a significant challenge to ensure employees recognize their new retirement readiness responsibilities.” said Ralph Marsh, NAGDCA’s current President and Executive Director of the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund.

A copy of the full paper can be found online at NAGDCA.org, and an excerpt of the paper can be found here.

NAGDCA is the country’s leading organization of defined contribution retirement plan administrators and financial service providers. It represents nearly every state deferred compensation plan, as well as numerous other governmental and public sector defined contribution plans, and over 150 companies in the financial services industry. Its mission is to focus on retirement planning for public sector employees participating in 457(b), 403(b), 401(a) and 401(k) retirement plans.

InFRE is NAGDCA’s trusted partner in providing professional development and certification for public sector defined contribution retirement professionals.