ELCA Board Offers Help for Low-Income Pensioners

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Low-income pensioners of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will receive some help, thanks to recommendations trustees of the ELCA Board of Pensions approved at their Feb. 2-4 meeting here. The Minneapolis-based Board of Pensions administers pension, health, disability and survivor benefits for ELCA pastors, lay leaders, employees and their families.
Earlier, the board established a "Blue Ribbon Committee" to find ways to increase the Special Needs Retirement Fund set up by the 1993 Churchwide Assembly. The fund is meant to supplement the incomes of some retired pastors and pastors' surviving spouses, raising a minimum standard of pension benefits from all sources.
Board trustees endorsed the committee's recommendation to revise eligibility guidelines to meet the needs of more low-income pensioners and surviving spouses -- a resolution the ELCA Church Council will consider at its April meeting, and which will take effect when the fund reaches a sufficient level. Trustees also approved freeing $240,000 as seed money for the Special Needs Retirement Fund and finding other ways to increase the fund.
The pension unit will debut an option in 2002 that offers pensioners the opportunity to contribute to the Special Needs Retirement Fund by marking a box on their pension check.
The trustees also:
+ Approved health plan changes, pending Church Council approval at its April 5-8 meeting. The changes would expand Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) benefits to 45 states and offer members a choice between Aetna U.S. Healthcare and Blue Cross and Blue Shield in 45 states in 2002.
+ Approved an "open window" to allow members with funds in the Transitional Pension Fund a one-time opportunity to move funds to the balanced fund. This allows members to access pension account distribution options they didn't have when they moved their money into the transitional fund. The additional options will become effective for plan members in 2003, but the open window for transitional fund members is effective this year.
+ Endorsed new simplified minimum required distribution rules for the Optional Pension Plan and Master Institutional Pension and Savings Plans.
The Board of Pensions trustees held their meeting in Chicago for the first time in the board's 13-year history. The site offered trustees the chance to hear from several churchwide staff about projects and ministries that relate to the pension unit's activities. One such project is the report, "Ministry Needs and Resources in the 21st Century" prepared by the Division for Ministry and the Department for Research and Evaluation to look at issues around a possible clergy shortage.
Because of this visit, "the church came much more to life in personal ways for our trustees," said John G. Kapanke, president of the ELCA Board of Pensions. "Likewise, other ELCA leaders learned of the challenges we face in providing benefits to help this church achieve its initiative to 'strengthen one another in mission.'"
In addition to hearing from churchwide staff, the trustees learned more about "predatory lending" from Edward M. Gramlich, a member of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, Washington, D.C. Gramlich spoke to the full board and also met with the board's corporate social responsibility committee during its joint meeting with the ELCA advisory committee on corporate social responsibility.

[*Sonia C. Solomonson is managing editor for The Lutheran, the magazine
of the ELCA.]

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