The Future of UC Retirement Benefits

Why didn’t the people handling our retirement do the math earlier? With a nice return on institutional investment of 22%, think of how healthy the UCRP system would be now had all employees been contributing just 1% and UC just 5-7% all along — much less painful than 6.5% and 12%! UC should have taken advantage of compounding. It’s shameful that those in charge let a system that had a surplus in the late 1980′s end up in this shape. The fact that having a surplus was a liability when it came to getting money from Sacramento shouldn’t have led to a decision to have neither employees nor UC put anything into the retirement.system for 20 years. Regents say the 2013 combined employee (6.5%) and UC contribution rate (12%) will, for the first time in more than 20 years, cover the annual cost of the plan, but had employees and UC contributed all along, the contributions per month needed to keep the system healthy would be far less, due to compounding. Top administrators at UC and at the state-level have to stop being so short-sighted, and should be required to have more quantitative skills!

this is just sad you get a raise and they raise something else Oh Well

After working here for over 32 years, I am greatful for my pension. I think it would have been better had I was asked to contribute a small percent of my income to keep the financials strong. That would have happened had they known what was ahead. Now for the current employees, I suggest you save your money too in the great 403 B plan!
I did that and I was at the low end of salaries, and now have about two hundered thousand dollars. That is a great emergency fund. I did not even miss the $800.00 per month I socked away. You just have to make adjusments and then you will look back and be amazed. Keep up the good work to make this University strong.

As soon as the market recovers and funding goes much above 100% they will suspend contributions again.
This way people at work during difficult economic times, besides having to deal with the bad economy themselves, also have to provide for retired people who instead enjoyed long bull markets.

The system is flawed.

Hmm, subject to collective bargaining. What does that mean? That represented employee won’t have to pay as high a percentage as us unrepresented employees or that they won’t have to pay anything at all.

That is just not fair. People represented have been getting raises every single year. I hadn’t got a raise for years until this year. It’s like I went 1 step forward with the raise this year and 5 steps back with this. The system is very flawed.

Can I find out who is managing UCRP money?
Investment return of 22%?

I want to invest my taxable accounts with that firm….

Persimmon – UC employees always did contribute 1% of their salary to retirement… it is just that for many years that money has been directed tot he `DCP’ plan, not into the UCRP fund. But there was no choice there, you had to make the contribution, you couldn’t go and save that money for your kids college or something.

In contrast, UC as an employer totally stopped making any contributions at all to UCRP between about 1991 and 2009. That was a really terrible decision.

Will the represented employees be contributing at a lower rate than the non-represented employees? If so their pension levels should reflect that. It’s hard enough trying to keep my head above water without having to subsidize those who won’t support their own retirement.

Here are links to two articles about what represented employees are contributing:
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/26805 and http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/26472

For those of you who are concerned that folks under collective bargaining are paying less than unrepresented, please know that we agreed and are paying the same as most unrepresented workers. Now when I say most, I do not include the upper CEO’s and Presdient Yudof, do you know as part of his contract he will get $350,000.00 a year for the rest of his life for working here only 7 years, what’s worse is that his pension comes out of our pension fund. did you know UC petitioned the IRS to put extra money (more that is allowed by law) into these upper level leaders(?) retirement plan? Have they done that for you or me? Hell no! And the money that gets put into their pension is not out of their high paying salary it’s a bonus of profit made off the backs of workers.As far as our raises, hey join a union and get over it! we have fought long and hard to make near market wages and with UC ( the greedy corp that it is) the fight will never stop. Last negotiations their lead negotiator had the nerve to say and I quote. ” We have the money, we just don’t want to give it to you!” Instead of putting down union workers, organize and join one and inprove your own status, we believe we all have the right to regular raises, a pension and to be treated with respect and dignity. we have no malice towards non represented folks, maybe you should rethink how you feel.
As far as UC now putting money into our retirement fund for 21 yearrs, while we did put our 2% into UCP. I don’t know about you, but as a single money in the years that were good I was smart enough to pu alittle aside for the rainy day, i ask why didn’t UC do the same? think about it. It doesn’t take a genious to know that you need to put something put away for the bad times. UC choose not to, certainly not out of stupidity, but out of greediness.

Sorry Inoticed a couple of typos I need to correct:
1. UC did NOT put money into our retirement system for 21 years.
2. I am not “single” money, I am a “single” mother, and by the way I have worked since I was 13 years old and raised my children by myself without ever asking for state aid, even if it meant working 3 jobs at a time. thanks for listening and please think hard about UC’s inability to appropriately manage out retirement system.. I would like to know how much we pay Fidelity to manage our retirement fund? You can bet It’s more than you and I will ever see. Fidelity doesn’t work for free.

the unfunded portion is what is most troubling and puts the system in trouble. hopefully a proposal to deal better with the situation takes place.

For everyone complaining about represented employees not paying their fair share, let me set the record straight. I’ve been on both sides of that equation during my tenure at UCSD. In general, represented employees have it far worse.

Unrepresented? You can get a raise whenever you and your boss agree that you’re due. You can negotiate salaries, bonuses, schedules and whatever else you want.

Represented employees can go for years without raises while new contracts are being negotiated. UC ALWAYS has the upper hand in those negotiations and they have no incentive to sign a contract. They are saving money.

As for pension contributions, yes they must be negotiated, but again, UC always wins and any increased payments are always made retroactively by the union members. Conversely, increased raises are not made retroactively, although there may be some small pittance that is awarded.

So rest assured that you will not “subsidize those who won’t support their own retirement.” If anything, their lost wages are supplementing you.

I am a new UC nurse. Am I understanding this article correctly? UC nurses have been contributing 1% of their salaries from 1991-2009 and now will be contributing 6.5%? That’s a HUGE increase and doesn’t seem fair. As a new hire, Is there anything I can do to keep my wages up and my pension contributions down? Is there a certain plan I should choose or a particular union I should join?

Many of you complain about putting in for your retirement. Yes UC knew in 1999 that it was underfunded and waited until now to correct the problem. But in reality we must all pay our fair share to get the benefits we have earned. 6.5% is small when you look at the big picture. Those that hate this idea can go to the private sector and try their luck there but will your retirement be there when you retire? Remember we are a team if we don’t pay now the system will fail.

Just to make the record straight, the DCP was always 2% not 1%. the only difference now is that it is directed into our pension fund and if you quit before you retire you don”t take that with you. As for the RN, read your last contract. You made out very well.

Stop pounching on represented employees, they have not received any raises since 2007 and dues were taken out of their checks, too.
No more whining.

I think the cost of living increases should be frozen for people who never paid into the retirement system from their own paychecks. I don’t mind the contributions, but giving cost of living increases to people who got a free ride while those of us working to support them see *no* cost of living increases in our salaries, greater paycheck deductions, and minimal and infrequent raises while dealing with very high housing costs is unconscionable. Remember, the folks retiring now likely bought their houses for less than 25% their current value – something this generation of workers will never be able to achieve. We need the cost of living increases to keep up with rent on our apartments.

Is this all so David Feinberg can get his $1.3 million salary?

If any of you think that you’re safe to rely on a company to do your retirement, you’ll be sorry when you retired, especially those that are new to the UC system. There are ways out there outside of UC that gives great returns on money without participating in the risky market, (if that’s something you’re worry about).

403b doesn’t work. If the market plunges again and I don’t see why it wouldn’t, you can lose 30-50% of it. Not to mention you haven’t pay your taxes on it and who knows what the tax rates going to be.

Again, there are many vehicles out there outside of the UC system that can provide tax free and life time income solution.

But what I’ve seen that many of you are NOT willing to do the homework or listen to other options and seek out help but to cling on and pray to God that the pension will be there as your retirement.

I have a long time friend who’s a financial adviser, who goes out and educate people, (including myself) and showed them that there are solutions out there for retirement. But if you’re not open minded, don’t complaint that there’s no help and blame you have to work till you drop dead.

What website to I have to go to so I can enroll in the UCRP?

Thank you

We are fortunate to still have a pension at all. A lot of private companies are switching to 401k accounts. It is only logical we have to contribute more as we go along. Prices rise for everything.