LAGERS BLOGGERS

Katie Hunze

Our guest blogger Katie Hunze from Jefferson County explains what is involved in a LAGERS on-site Pre-Retirement Seminar and how they can help employees understand their benefit.

Jefferson County hosted its first Pre-Retirement Seminar in April; open to all our employees. We were pleased to have 95 employees for our first attempt. Our vision is to ensure that whether retirement is five years or twenty-five years away, all employees should have a solid understanding of what they’re working towards every single day. We appreciate and value all of our public servants and want them to be able to enjoy the retirement that they have worked so hard for! Retirement benefits are covered during our new hire orientation but that can be somewhat overwhelming and this seminar allowed us to focus on the specific topic of retirement.

When Angela arrived, she was energetic and pleasant, which has been my experience with any LAGERS staff member. She led us through a very informative power point presentation. Most participants also had an estimate of their benefits with them that they created on their myLAGERS account making the experience much more personal. They were able to see a breakdown of exactly how their benefit is calculated and view options available to them once retirement is upon them. Angela explained each option with great detail along with answering any scenario based questions. Working after retirement was a frequently asked question. My answer, of course, was don’t! Please go and enjoy each day, doing what you wish you could have when you had to come to work! Angela did answer all of their questions and the impact on their LAGERS benefit, if any.

I would encourage all employers to host this seminar for their employees. The information they will gain is much more exciting to discuss among their coworkers and friends rather than reading from a brochure. It’s never too early to start planning and saving for retirement to help ensure you can live the lifestyle you’ve always envisioned.

If you’d like to have an on-site Pre-Retirement Seminar for your employees, please contact the LAGERS office to set one up. We look forward to helping you educate your employees on their LAGERS benefit.