In fall of 2020, the State University Retirement System (SURS) rolled out the newly rebranded SURS Retirement Savings Plan (RSP). A revamp of the existing SURS Self-Managed Plan, these changes extended beyond a new name to include a different plan administrator, new investment option lineup, and an additional income option for retirees. We have spent the last 6+ months diving into the details of the plan and writing the following paper to present our findings.
You may download the paper below.
Executive Summary:
It is clear from our research this new plan is extremely complicated. One of the biggest changes is SURS outsourcing a major component of the plan to a third-party company, Voya. In our experience, even the SURS call center employees are not fully trained on the inner workings of the new plan or its features. In some cases, we were referred to Voya representatives to answer questions.
The paper present education and details about the new plan as follows:
An overview of retiree health insurance benefits as a SURS retiree, including under the new RSP.
A detailed analysis of the new income option for the RSP, the Secure Income Plan.
A decision tree of factors that may influence whether to utilize the Secure Income Plan vs. an Annuity.
Commentary from us regarding this change and the rollout by SURS.
Disclosures
This was written to supplement the planning decisions we make with our ongoing clients in the context of a broader financial plan. We are providing this to the general public as educational materials. We would caution any reader that the SURS plan, including this new RSP, is very complex. We could not possibly cover every possible situation or consideration in this document. You should consult other advisors regarding tax, investment, and other financial implications before making an irrevocable decision. You should not rely solely on this document for any decisions regarding your SURS plan. While we believe the information in this report to be factual, we cannot guarantee it. We did cite sources whenever facts are presented. As representatives of SURS and/or Voya would not provide full details of plan features, the paper also describes when assumptions or estimates were used.