Jumpline magazine OCT 2022-pages - Flipbook - Page 27
Sparky Thomson
Retired Metro Dade
Firefighters President
Retiree Page
Nationwide Fixed Account Guaranteed Return
Hi everyone. As of this writing, I am
on the road with my latest RV and will
be attending the Dahlonega Reunion
soon. If you have never attended, you
need to. It is an incredible get together
with legendary retirees. Our host, Jeffrey
Burns, advised me that we have record
numbers attending this year. My hats off
to Jeffrey and his wife Jennifer. They are
doing an outstanding job with a great venue.
If you have money with Nationwide in your retirement account
(Employees Deferred Compensation Plan (457)), please read
on. I will try to make a long story brief.
Many of our retirees put a lot, if not most, of their monies in
Nationwide’s Fixed Account.
As of late 2017, the Fixed Account was earning 3.5 %. That
was verbally guaranteed to me, and several others, when we
retired. It is now down to 2.18%. That is a significant reduction.
Many of our retirees were counting on a safe and moderately
consistent return on their money, only to see it dwindle
consistently.
So, I started a mission to find out how this came to be.
Dade County sat down with their “Employees Deferred
Compensation Plan Governing Committee” and changed the
structure of the rates and how fees were paid. As far as I can
tell, there were only three people on that committee and no
representation from any of our unions or county employee
reps. I believe two of the committee members worked for Dade
County HR and they had a financial advisor from Gallagher.
They said they were trying to make the fees more equitable
for all participants in all their funds. No notification was sent
to 1403. They sent out a flyer to all members that contained
a short section explaining how they were changing the
rates. The flyer was not very official looking and was
probably discarded as junk mail by most. I know I did
if I ever received it. They started reducing the Fixed
Account quarterly, and it is now down to about 2.18%.
With almost $900 million in the fixed fund, it has
drastically affected many of our members anticipated
retirement income.
I contacted an HR person who was on that
committee, and she tried to explain in the simplest of
terms to me, why and how they made these decisions.
I did not really understand it all, so I recruited and met
with some of our retirees, our Local 1403 President
and the PBA President, who obviously represent many
members/participants in this program. They were
quite surprised. We employed an incredible financial
expert in this field to do research for us. He went out to
get “benchmarks” for the purpose of learning how this
process works and how our rates compare to “like”
programs elsewhere.
He found out that there are over 19,000 county
employees in this program and that there is over
$1.9 BILLION in Nationwide’s program with almost
$900 MILLION in the FIXED ACCOUNT! He also
discovered that there were other government
employees in the State of Florida that were still getting
3.5% on the Fixed Account! He then
arranged a meeting with us and top
executives from Nationwide to meet
and hear our concerns. We met and
had a highly informative meeting. They
heard our concerns, and we await further
word. Stay tuned….
As of this writing, Nationwide has not made any
competitive changes or adjustments to their Fixed Account
but are working it.
--Last Month, I presented our John C. Soeder Camaraderie
award to Class #149’s recipient, Firefighter Josue J. Bosch
Garcell.
--Last but not least: FACEBOOK!
I am still imploring that any of our retirees that are not on
Facebook to please consider joining. It is a free, easy, and fun
way to see what is happening, what events are coming up, how
the events went (including pictures), who has passed away
and their respective funeral arrangements and much more.
Join Facebook Groups:
•
Retired Metro Dade Firefighters – Messages here are
of particular interest to Retirees.
•
Metro-Dade Firefighters Union Messages – Messages
posted here are official communications from the Union.
•
Unified Metro-Dade Firefighters – An unofficial
message board for members
Follow Facebook Page:
•
Metro-Dade Firefighters Local 1403 – A page intended
to communicate with elected officials and the public in
general.
--Stay safe. Stay well.
October 2022 | JUMPLINE Magazine
27
