Message from Trustee

As part of my responsibility to administer, protect and manage the SRHS Pension Plan assets, we have recently completed a comprehensive audit review of participants’ records relating to the plan. The audit reaches back as far as the 1960′ s to check and double check these records, including:

  • Qualifying Length of Service;
  • Documented/ Verified Retirement Date;
  • Personal data including name, tax id, date of birth, etc.;
  • Contributions/ Pension Plan start date;
  • Employment status changes, eg. Leaves of Absence, full time to part time or vice versa, etc.;

This comprehensive review examined thousands of files and a wide range of participant data, including over 40 years’ worth of paper and electronic files. This has been a significant undertaking that involved thousands of hours of research, conducted with cooperation and support by Transamerica Retirement Solutions and the Human Resources Department at SRHS which hired extra help to supply data for this comprehensive audit review.

Not surprisingly, the review identified some records that require updates to their account information, qualifying service records and /or a correction to their benefits calculation rates. The majority of these adjustments are in the beneficiaries’ favor while a very small number were identified as having an over payment of benefits.

Any participant with records found to require a correction (increase or decrease in payment) will be notified before October 1 with information about the updates to their record and how it will affect their monthly check. Most accounts did not require a correction and thus will not receive a notification letter.

It’s important to note that this audit review and any resulting corrections are unrelated to the pending litigation involving the Plan.

We now have a thoroughly audited and updated set of records for plan participants, which will be essential to our work going forward to continue providing benefits to current and future retirees. Pending the outcome of the Settlement Agreement currently remanded to the District Court for further review, we will use these audited records to calculate ongoing benefits for each qualifying participant.