Eligibility

In order for a local government to choose LAGERS as its plan administrator, the local pension plan must be frozen, meaning no further plan provisions changes can be made, no new employees will be enrolled in the local plan and employee benefits within that plan are frozen. All new employees would be enrolled into LAGERS.

More on Eligibility

• The employer sponsor of the local plan must be a political subdivision of the state of Missouri with the authority to tax.
• The local plan must be a frozen defined benefit pension plan where no new members are being enrolled into the plan (new hires would be enrolled in LAGERS) and/or benefit accruals have been frozen as of a specific date.
• The employer sponsor of the local plan must have LAGERS-covered employees. If the employer is not currently participating in LAGERS, or if the employee group that is covered by the local plan is not currently participating in LAGERS, the employer must begin LAGERS participation for this group of employees prior to LAGERS accepting administration of the local plan.
• The employer sponsor of the local plan must demonstrate a commitment to fully funding the required contributions determined by LAGERS.
• The local plan must make changes to its plan document as prescribed by LAGERS.
• The LAGERS Board of Trustees may deny affiliation with any local plan for any reason.

The Process

Each local pension plan is unique and will require special care and attention. LAGERS anticipates each plan conversion process to take several months to complete.

• LAGERS’ staff will complete an in-depth review of the local pension plan provisions, financial information, actuarial reports, and information from the Joint Committee on Public Employee Retirement to ensure the local plan is a good fit for LAGERS.
• LAGERS Staff will identify any possible changes that will need to be made to the local plan document before moving forward.
• The local plan must receive an actuarial valuation from LAGERS’ actuary showing what the the annual required contribution and unfunded liability would be under LAGERS. These figures would be produced using LAGERS’ actuarial assumptions.
• The local pension board will recommend LAGERS administration of its pension plan to the governing body (e.g., city council) of the political subdivision.
• The local governing body will pass a resolution to transfer administration of its pension plan to LAGERS.

To Learn More, Contact Jeff Kempker

E-mail Jeff

Call Jeff @ 573-632-6371

How Much Will it Cost?

• The local government will know all of the costs up-front before a decision is made to transfer administration of its pension plan to LAGERS.
• There will be up-front fees for actuarial studies and for changes to LAGERS’ software.
• The full, monthly employer contribution would be required to ensure funding of the local plan stays on-track in trending toward 100% funding.
• Unfunded liabilities of the local plan will be amortized over a period of years and will be paid via the required monthly contribution.