ELCA Council Acts on Annuity Payment Reduction Recommendations - News Releases - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
November 17, 2010
November 17, 2010
ELCA Council Acts on Annuity Payment Reduction Recommendations
10-290-JB
10-290-JB
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) authorized one-time payments from the ELCA Special Needs Retirement Fund "as soon as realistically possible in 2011" to help people most adversely affected by reductions in ELCA Board of Pensions annuity payments caused by the crisis in financial markets in late 2008 and early 2009.
The council action was among a series of recommendations it approved from a report presented by an Ad Hoc Committee the council appointed in August.
The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The council met here Nov. 12-14. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is Aug. 14-20, 2011, in Orlando, Fla.
The Board of Pensions is a separately incorporated, self-supporting ministry of the ELCA, based in Minneapolis.
In addition the council asked the Board of Pensions and the management committee of the ELCA Special Needs Retirement Fund to "develop criteria based on need and a process for distribution of available funds" to those with the greatest need. It asked for more frequent reviews of eligibility, including periodic comprehensive reviews to address plan members' needs in light of economic realities, and requested more information about the implementation of the recommendations at the council's April 2011 meeting.
In 2009 the ELCA Board of Pensions informed about 12,500 plan members receiving benefits from the Participating Annuity and Bridge Fund that it planned to reduce annuity payments annually over a three-year period. The fund suffered significant losses due to the financial downturn in late 2008 and early 2009, necessitating the reductions.
Trustees of the Board of Pensions reduced annuity payments for 2010 by 9 percent and set the interest crediting rate for bridge accounts at -3.5 percent. On Nov. 7 they agreed to smaller reductions in 2011 because of stronger market performance, especially in the past two months. Trustees reduced 2011 annuity payments by 6 percent and set the interest crediting rate at -0.3 percent for bridge accounts.
