 October | VOLUME #122
 A change in marital status serves as a qualifying status
change for many benefits. Please remember to change your employee’s marital
status in the event of divorce or death of a spouse. This will support the
Division in providing excellent customer service.
If marital status change is due to divorce, please direct
your employee to the Division’s website for information on documents that must
be submitted to the Division.
If marital status change is due to the death of a spouse,
please direct your employee to the Division’s website for beneficiary change
forms.
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2004 Social Security Administration legislation requires
that employers provide a statement, the SSA-1945 form, to employees hired after
January 1, 2005 in a job not covered by Social Security. The SSA-1945 form explains
how a pension from that job could affect future Social Security benefits to
which the employee may become entitled.
Employers must give the SSA-1945 form to the employee prior
to the start of employment, get the employee’s signature on the form, and
submit a copy of the signed form to the pension paying agency. For the State of
Alaska, forms should be returned via email or hard copy to the State’s Social
Security Administrator.
In the past we have filed these forms by date received, making them
almost impossible to retrieve, but SSA-1945 forms will now be filed by employer
and then by employee. Employers can help by please remembering to
legibly fill out all information on the form.
The return address and the link to current SSA-1945 form are provided below. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact
your State Social Security Administrator, Melanie Helmick, at melanie.helmick@alaska.gov or (907) 465-5707.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Current SSA-1945 Form
Return to:
Division of Retirement and Benefits
PO Box 110203
Juneau, AK 99811-0203
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 As of August 2015, we have kicked off our travel season for
the fiscal year 2015-16. We will be traveling to different areas of Alaska and
will visit many different employers. We will provide individual counseling sessions
and seminars as requested. Employers and employees: please consult with your
regional counselor to express your questions, concerns and education requests
in advance. Now would be a good time to inform your regional counselor if you
have new employees that are in need of education on PERS IV or TRS III. We can
partner with Empower Retirement (formerly Great-West) to provide a
comprehensive educational opportunity.
As fellow Alaskans, you have faced the trials and
tribulations of traveling throughout our great state and understand that
sometimes it takes celestial alignments to make our connections and appointments.
With our very limited time, one of our goals is to maximize our resources at
every opportunity. To do so, I have compiled information from our field reports
that will enable us to continue to strive for this goal:
I. What has worked and what is working?
Employers are in charge of internal notifications of our annual visits
and signup sheets for individual counseling, group meetings or seminars. This
maximizes allotted time per visit and also indicates whether we need to
allocate more or less resources with future visits.
II. Where should employer or employee questions be
directed?
Employee questions should always be directed toward the retirement counselors
of the Division of Retirement and Benefits. The retirement counselors are the
employer advocates in directing questions and concerns. They have access to
subject matter experts, historical knowledge and the Participation Agreements.
They also have the ability to elevate a question to the “Employer Response
Team”, which is composed of supervisory, managerial and chief level personnel.
III. Should employers answer questions about the PERS
or the TRS?
In short: no. Answering questions
about the PERS or the TRS could put you in a situation where you could be held
liable. The best practice is to send the question(s) to the Division of
Retirement and Benefits.
IV. Should employers ask other employers about the
PERS or the TRS?
This is not recommended. Every employer is different and answers may
differ from one employer to the next. Participation Agreements will be a major
consideration in employer responses. Again, the best practice is to send the
question(s) to the Division of Retirement and Benefits.
I am always open to new or fresh ideas. If you have some
best practices or observations that you would like to share, please convey
these to your counselor or myself.
Roberto Aceveda
Counseling and Benefit Education Manager
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 Did you know that members of the Defined Contribution
Retirement Plan who have not attended a seminar are more apt to cash out their
retirement account? This is a very spooky proposition when we dig in to the facts.
These members are making a lifetime income decision without any education.
Today, 76% of members who have not attended a seminar cash
out their retirement account. We do not know every reason for the high
percentage of distributions, but we do know that 40% of the 76% who cash out received
education and recommendations from their friends, who are often not the
appropriate source for financial advice.
So what can we do? We as a team need to encourage our
members and our employees to attend trainings and seminars when provided. Better
yet, you as employers have the ability to make attendance mandatory.
Currently at the Division of Retirement and Benefits, we
offer seminars, webinars and individual appointments. However, in light of
employer and member demand, we are expanding our capabilities and will soon
have New Employee Orientations available to all members. New Employee
Orientations will be prerecorded and available 24/7 on our website.
Will this be the magic bullet? We don’t know. What we do
know is that members will have access to the education and information.
Roberto Aceveda
Counseling and Benefit Education Manager
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 Open Enrollment is November
4-25, 2015.
This year, Optional Benefits are
changing for all members. The State of Alaska will begin offering increased
life insurance volumes and enhanced Short-Term Disability coverage.
If your employees are enrolled
in Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D), Supplemental Life Insurance
and/or Short-Term Disability Insurance, they MUST re-enroll in order to keep
their coverage. Coverage WILL NOT roll over to the new benefit year.
All Optional Benefits members
will receive a letter detailing the changes in these benefits and how to
enroll. The Division will also send Open Enrollment emails to employers and ask
that they be forwarded to all employees.
Go to Alaska.gov/drb/OpenEnrollment for more information about the
changes in Optional Benefits for the 2016 benefit year.
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