Pension Protection Act & Secure Act 2.0
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 allowed retired public safety officers a tax deduction of up to $3,000 of your health insurance premium bills if those premiums came directly off from your pension check. The SECURE Act 2.0 of 2022 states that those premiums no longer must come solely from insurance premiums deducted from your pension check. The MRPA can’t give tax advice so please ask your tax advisor for further clarification.
Social Security Fairness Act H.R.82
President Joe Biden signed this act on 1-05-25. This law repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision. This law applies to benefits payable for the months after December 2023. Retired government employees currently receiving pensions will see a dramatic increase in their monthly Social Security benefits. This, along with a “back pay check” will occur (according to “experts”) sometime in the next few weeks.
****UPDATE****
February 25th 2025 Update from the Social Security Admin. Re. The Social Security Fairness Act Payments
Starting the week of February 24, 2025, SSA is beginning to pay retroactive benefits and will increase monthly benefit payments to people whose benefits have been affected by the WEP and GPO
If a beneficiary is due retroactive benefits as a result of the Act, they will receive a one-time retroactive payment, deposited into the bank account SSA has on file, by the end of March. This retroactive payment will cover the increase in their benefit amount back to January 2024, the month when WEP and GPO no longer apply.
Social Security benefits are paid one month behind. Most affected beneficiaries will begin receiving their new monthly benefit amount in April 2025 (for their March 2025 benefit).
Anyone whose monthly benefit is adjusted, or who will get a retroactive payment, will receive a mailed notice from Social Security explaining the benefit change or retroactive payment.
NOTE: A beneficiary may receive two mailed notices, the first when WEP or GPO is removed from their record, and a second when their monthly benefit amount is adjusted for their new monthly payment amount. They may receive the retroactive payment before receiving the mailed notice.
We have been able to expedite payments due to the use of automation. For the many complex cases that cannot be processed automatically, additional time is required to manually update the records and pay both retroactive benefits and the new benefits amount.
We urge beneficiaries to wait until April to inquire about the status of their retroactive payment, since these payments will process incrementally throughout March.
Beneficiaries should also wait until after receiving their April payment before contacting SSA to ask about their monthly benefit amount because the new amount will not be reflected until April for their March payment.
Please check the below link to the Social Security Administration Website to get more accurate information.
Pension Fund Update
by Tom Klusman, Retiree-elect ERS Board Trustee
Hello my fellow MPD retirees! I hope your Summer went well, and Welcome to the Fall season. The following is my regular update to you all on recent happenings and the current stats on our pension fund.
CURRENT STATUS
As of the first week of September 2025, our fund’s total value stands at $6.24 Billion. We started the year at $5.85 Billion. So, clearly, 2025 has been a good year so far. Here’s more particulars …
Outgoing monies YTD are just shy of $342 million, with $326.6 million of that being the eight (8) so far monthly retiree payrolls. So we see now, our monthly retiree payroll has surpassed $40 million per month. The rest is the administrative expenses to run the fund and GPS payments.
On the incoming / contributions side, we have received $237.5 million YTD in employee & employer contributions. This is now our 2nd year of historically large employer contributions, mainly funded by the Act 12 city sales tax.
On the investment portfolio side of things; it’s a wonderful world. We currently have an 8.18% return so far (YTD). The excellent work of our investment team & managers clearly continues. This return already exceeds our year-end return assumption of 6.8%, as required by Act 12. In dollars, this return equates to $492 million in Capital Market Gain for our fund so far YTD.
So in summary, we are about $400 million better off than we were on January 1 of this year, and we’ve paid out quite a bit in the meantime. The strong incoming contributions and the excellent investment returns are to thank for this.
2025 ANNUAL ACTUARIAL VALUATION
As I always mention, an Annual Actuarial Valuation of our fund is required by Chapter 36 and is routinely presented to the ERS Board at its June meeting. This year that occurred on June 24th. The valuation reports a snapshot of our fund as of January 1st of each year, in this case 2025. This year’s valuation determined and reported our fund’s actuarial accrued liability has risen to $8.04 Billion, from $7.8 Billion last year. As we always like to do; comparing that number to what we cited above that we ‘have in the bank’ ($6.24 Billion) reveals a $1.8 Billion unfunded actuarially accrued liability, which, if you’re keeping track is the same as last year. So it seems we picked up some extra cash this year, but also some extra liabilities; isn’t that life?
Also, as I enjoy reporting to you each year, each year’s valuation exposes what our funded ratio is. This year (on an actuarial basis) our funded ratio decreased a bit to 76.01%, from 76.7% last year. What ‘funded ratio’ means is that currently our fund realistically has about 76% of the money it needs to meet all its obligations.
THE RETIREMENT OF JERRY ALLEN AND OUR SEARCH FOR A NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
You may have heard that the Executive Director of our ERS has announced his own retirement at the end of 2025. Many of you have met Mr. Jerry Allen over the years, as he has spoken at many retiree functions, City meetings, etc. in the past. Mr. Allen has served our fund for over seventeen years as its Executive Director. Jerry’s significant intelligence, talent, patience, and just outright caring for us retirees has impacted every aspect of our ERS and made it the great institution it now is. His retirement is very much deserved, but will leave a huge hole in our front office. We (the pension board) earlier this year hired a national executive talent search firm to seek-out Jerry’s successor. We are currently in the midst of this process and it is going well. We have received an overwhelming response in the number of applicants from all over the country, many with public pension plan executive experience, and others similarly qualified. We as a board are looking for a person to carry-on the excellence that Jerry has built, and that surely will be a very difficult task. We hope to have this process completed by the end of 2025 when Jerry goes to his very much deserved retirement. Jerry is irreplaceable, but our goal is to find the next-best on earth, wherever he or she may be.
THE RETIREE SEAT ON OUR PENSION BOARD
As I am sure you have noticed with the mailer sent out with our August pay stub, the retiree seat on our pension board is up for election this year. The term I am currently serving (my third, four-year term) expires at the end of 2025. After a lot of hard thinking, I have decided not to seek re-election. I know I have been very privileged to serve in this seat for these past twelve years and I have appreciated the support of so many of you.
To this end; as I have been encouraged to run again by so many of you, I have also been asked ‘then who’ after learning of my departure. There are two candidates that have submitted papers for our retiree seat. At times, choosing a candidate or endorsing one as I am doing here is a tough, or a close call. Here that is not the case. Mr. John Barmore is the clearly, head-over-heels more qualified candidate and I would ask you to vote for him. He has served on our pension board before as a Trustee and Chairman of our Board when he was an active employee and he is very, very knowledgeable about all aspects of our fund. Mr. Barmore is also the only candidate that has regularly attended our pension board meetings for many years now and is as up-to-speed on ERS’ important matters as anyone could be. Mr. Barmore has also proven his dedication to retirees by leading one of the three Milwaukee retiree associations for many years now.
Lastly, as with any election, nothing matters unless good people vote! This is a mail-in election, so please make sure and mail your ballot in. As soon as you receive it (in mid October) mark it for John Barmore, make sure and put your pension or payroll ID on the envelope and please drop it in the mail immediately. This small task goes a long way for the years of service John will then provide us in our retiree seat.
In closing, I have been honored to serve in the ‘retiree rep’ seat on our pension board for so long, and with your support. The best part of that job has always been seeing so many of you at meetings, luncheons, and around town as I try my best to keep you informed of the important things that affect us.
Thank You for reading, but mostly for all your support over the years.
Sincerely,
-Tom Klusman
Medicare Info- 2025 Information
Kerry Leist, VP/Operations for NATIONAL BENEFIT CONSULTANTS, INC. passes along the following important information regarding Medicare eligibility. Click on the following link to see more information on Medicare costs and benefits
If you have any questions concerning the attached Medicare information, please contact Kerry Leist at 262-201-4370 ext. 101
Police Relief Association (PRA) – By: Shannon M. Seymer-Tabaska
The Police Relief Association is a non-profit organization (501c3) whose PRA Board is elected by the membership, to include the Milwaukee Police Department Retirees Association (MPRA), the Milwaukee Police Association (MPA), and the Milwaukee Police Supervisor’s Organization (MPSO). The current PRA Board members include: President: Branko Stojsavljevic, Vice President: Vacant, Treasurer: Shannon M. Seymer-Tabaska, Secretary: Dena Klemstein, Directors: Patrick Doyle (retired member), David Feldmeier, and Eric Pfeiffer. In addition, the PRA Board has City Attorney Office representation under City Attorney Patrick McClain.
To be an active member of the PRA, one must be a sworn active law enforcement officer and/or a retiree who pays monthly dues of $2.08 into the PRA fund, which includes those members approved for a duty and/or ordinary disability. If a MPD member did not leave in good standing (i.e. termination and/or resigned) his/her PRA benefit ceases.
At retirement, active law enforcement members have the option to “opt out” of the PRA, but the PRA Board discourages this option as the majority of members lose a $9000.00 benefit that their beneficiary is entitled to at time of death. Once the latter “opt out” election is made, a member can’t re-enroll in the PRA. In addition, in 1998, there was a member election regarding the $9000.00 benefit amount wherein members elected to increase their dues to receive the $9000.00 benefit, but if a member did not make the election, their entitlement is $8000.00. There are also a few older retirees who only pay $1.25 per month into the PRA fund, so their benefit is reduced as well.
As an active member of the PRA, it is pertinent that any life change (i.e. marriage, birth/death, re-location, etc…) that result in beneficiary, address and/or phone changes, the PRA is provided the updated information. Updated information can be provided on a beneficiary form that can be found on the PRA website: http://www.pra-milwaukee.com/
and/or the member can contact us at (414) 649-8373 to request a form be emailed and/or mailed.
To claim a death benefit for a PRA member, the designee at death (i.e. spouse, surviving children) must contact the PRA at phone number (414)649-8373 to verify the member was active and in good standing and must provide a death certificate for the decedent. Members should be aware that the PRA Board members time is voluntary, thus, we do not have a full-time staffed office and will make a good faith effort to respond as soon as possible.
Currently, the PRA Fund is at 8.5 million dollars and it is the PRA Board’s fiduciary responsibility to ensure money collected from members and through donations (i.e. Combined Giving and/or private donors) is invested for fund growth and we all thank you for allowing us to serve the membership as your PRA Board.
Branko, Shannon, Dena, Pat, David, and Eric