'Radical Move' Earns United Methodist Church Plan Sponsor of the Year Award

'Radical Move' Earns United Methodist Church Plan Sponsor of the Year Award GREENWICH, Conn., Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- In a year filled with scandals, pension funding issues, the renewed debate about Social Security, and growing concerns about the retirement security of the nation, PLANSPONSOR's Plan Sponsor of the Year has put values first in its plan design. "There have been a lot of individuals that have made an impact on our industry this year -- and picking our Plan Sponsor of the Year this year was even more complicated than usual," acknowledges Nevin Adams, Editor-in-Chief of PLANSPONSOR. "However, this year we are pleased to honor the United Methodist Church, which, in bringing values into its retirement plan design, has recommitted itself to the concept of a defined benefit plan for its clergy." As detailed in the cover story of the current issue of PLANSPONSOR magazine, in May 2004, the United Methodist Church made a decision considered downright radical these days: to start a new defined benefit plan. The 25,000- plus active US clergy of the UMC who participate in the current plan will participate in the new combined defined benefit/defined contribution program starting January 1, 2007. And the 1,000 lay employees of the general church will be eligible to participate in a similar plan. "I kept scratching my head, wondering why we had a defined contribution- only plan," remembers Barbara Boigegrain, general secretary and CEO of the UMC's General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church, in the story outlining their deliberations. "It did not add up for me, especially because it pushes all the investment risk onto the participants, the people who they said they wanted to protect. I was concerned about the long-term benefits for the clergy of the church." Dan O'Neill, a task force member who spent 30 years in manufacturing before starting work with the UMC, knows well how the church's approach differed from that of corporate America. "In the secular world, you focus a lot on costs and on contractual agreements," says O'Neill, treasurer and conference pension officer of the UMC's Rocky Mountain Conference. "We started with the question, what are our values? We looked at it from a much more humanistic, less financial perspective. The financial constraints, which you almost start with in the secular world, did not come into play until we flushed out the details." "America's workforce faces some daunting challenges in the years to come," notes Adams. "It is a pleasure to be able to acknowledge the efforts of plan sponsors such as the United Methodist Church in helping them prepare for a financially secure retirement." Each year the editors of PLANSPONSOR magazine, the industry's leading resource for pension and benefits related news, chooses a plan sponsor that demonstrates leadership in providing a more secure retirement for workers. Previous recipients have included Gary Amelio, executive director of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, David Bronner, head of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, the FDNY Pension Fund, and General Motors Investment Management Corporation's Allen Reed. About PLANSPONSOR PLANSPONSOR magazine is the nation's leading authority on retirement issues. PLANSPONSOR.com provides comprehensive news and commerce services dedicated solely to helping employers and financial advisors navigate the complex world of retirement plans on behalf of their employees or clients. For more information see http://www.plansponsor.com/. PLANSPONSOR is headquartered at 125 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich, CT 06830. Source: PLANSPONSOR CONTACT: Nevin Adams, Editor-in-Chief of PLANSPONSOR, +1-203-769-2904, nevin.adams@plansponsor.com Web site: http://www.plansponsor.com/ ------- Profile: International Entertainment