Newsroom - TRSL - Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana

2015 Annual Report now available

Dec 4, 2015

Our 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report is now available online for your review. To see the highlights of last year’s performance, take a moment to read our 2015 Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR).

Hennigan re-elected to District 4 seat

Dec 4, 2015

Baton Rouge—District 4 trustee David A. Hennigan won re-election to his seat on the TRSL Board of Trustees. The retirement board received District 4 run-off election results at its December meeting. Hennigan of Shreveport received 54.78% of the vote, topping Breanke Mitchell, also of Shreveport, who received 45.22% of the vote. Hennigan’s new four-year term begins January 1, 2016. District 4 includes actively working TRSL member...

Nov 6, 2015

Baton Rouge – The Board of Trustees for the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) made an interim trustee appointment at its November meeting. Tia T. Mills, Ed.D., of Baton Rouge, was appointed and sworn in to represent active members employed in District 3, which includes the parishes of Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, Lafourche, and Terrebonne. Mills is a teacher at Magnolia Woods Elementary School in East Bato...

Nov 4, 2015

The below blog is from the National Council on Teacher Retirement "Medicare Part B Premium Increase Update." First, the bad news: Medicare Part B premiums for many, but not all, retired teachers and other public employees will still increase in 2016, despite recent action by the Congress that was signed into law by the President on November 2, 2015. The standard premium for those enrollees who pay their premiums directly to Med...

Oct 5, 2015

Baton Rouge—The TRSL Board of Trustees received good news at its October meeting when results of the system’s annual valuation report were presented. According to the report, TRSL’s assets and funded status are up, and employer contributions will go down. The system’s assets rose by $1.4 billion—an 8% increase over the previous fiscal year. Assets now stand at $17.5 billion, increasing the system’s fun...

Oct 2, 2015

Baton Rouge—The TRSL Board of Trustees received election results for the District 4 position at its October meeting. No candidate received a majority of votes, making a run-off necessary between the top two candidates with the most votes. David A. Hennigan and Breanke P. Mitchell, both of Shreveport, will be in the run-off. The official results for the primary election are as follows: David A. Hennigan - 40.97% Breanke P. Mitch...

Sep 8, 2015

Baton Rouge—The Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) delivers high-quality, low-cost services to its membership, according to an independent benchmarking firm that reviews cost and performance of public pension systems. Analysis conducted by the Toronto-based CEM Benchmarking, Inc. compares TRSL against similarly sized pension systems in service levels, plan complexity, transaction volumes, cost environment, and eco...

TRSL Board Election News

Sep 7, 2015

District 3: Qualifying for special appointment underway (see requirements)

Jul 24, 2015

Status Updates Following U.S. Supreme Court Decision On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, finding that same-sex couples have the legal right to marry in all U.S. jurisdictions and that states must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. In compliance with Obergefell, the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) will recognize same-sex marriages in t...

Jul 20, 2015

A new report details the unique challenges many women face in accessing a secure retirement. Read the report here. At TRSL, our members have a defined benefit retirement plan that provides a reliable source of income during retirement. Find out more about your TRSL retirement by visiting these web pages: What Are My Benefits? When Can I Retire? How Do I Retire? What About My Leave?

Did you know?

Apr 16, 2015

Did you know… A TRSL benefit is more affordable for employers than Social Security (4.2% rate versus 6.2% rate next year). At 8% of salary, teachers pay for the lion’s share of their benefits. The unfunded accrued liability (UAL) is mostly past debt the state owes TRSL. TRSL provides a modest, yet reliable source of income to more than 73,000 retirees and beneficiaries, giving them buying power in their local communities. ...

Mar 27, 2015

Fact: People often confuse the actual cost of providing a teacher’s retirement benefit with the state’s obligation to pay down debt accrued through years of underfunding the retirement system. These are two different costs. Fact: Teachers and employers both make contributions to fund the actual cost of a retirement benefit. This is called the normal cost. Fact: The normal cost for this school year is 13%. Of that, teachers pay 8...

Feb 11, 2015

The following letter to the editor from state Rep. Kevin Pearson (LA-Slidell) appeared on The Times-Picayune website, www.nola.com, on February 10, 2015. Rep. Pearson chairs the House retirement committee in the Louisiana Legislature. Most people value and respect our teachers, police officers and firefighters to such a degree that they believe these individuals deserve fair compensation for their sacrifices. Additionally, most people are fair...

Feb 3, 2015

The following response to the NCTQ study comes from the National Council on Teacher Retirement A new “report card” from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) claims that “70 cents on every dollar contributed to state teacher pension systems pays for debt, not retirement benefits,” and gives States an average overall grade of C- for their teacher pension policies. The report, entitled Doing the Math on Tea...

Jan 29, 2015

The following letter to the editor appeared in The Advocate (Baton Rouge) on January 29, 2015. As a member of the Board of Trustees for the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) for the past 24 years, I often get asked questions about the board’s investment goals and strategies. Our primary goal is to ensure the system’s portfolio has the right mix of investments to fund retirements in the long term. A rece...

Jan 27, 2015

A “study” by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) actually does a disservice to the very teachers it claims will benefit from changes to retirement options currently available. TRSL provided NCTQ with a response to the report on Louisiana’s retirement system for teachers. Here is a condensed version of our response. TRSL is flexible and portable. It is TRSL’s position that the traditional defined benefit (D...

Jan 23, 2015

Every year there is a restatement of the unfunded accrued liability (UAL) based upon a number of factors. Some factors such as strong investment earnings and employer contributions reduce the UAL while others add to it. Events in FY 2014 that resulted in a change in the UAL from the previous year include the following: Cost method changed to entry age normal. TRSL is actuarially funded, which means many factors (past, present, and projected) ...

TRSL mails 1099-R forms

Jan 23, 2015

Baton Rouge – TRSL mailed all 1099-R forms today, and members should begin receiving them in the mail as soon as tomorrow. You will need your 1099-R to file your IRS tax return. For security, TRSL only prints the last four digits of your Social Security number on your 1099-R form. View your 1099-R form online You can view and print your 2014 Form 1099-R online with TRSL’s Member Access, and update your withholding status, if...

Jan 21, 2015

Starting Monday, January 26, the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) will begin operating out of the Claiborne Building in downtown Baton Rouge. OGB’s new physical address is 1201 N. 3rd Street, Suite G-159, Baton Rouge, LA 70802 (map). However, the mailing address will remain the same—P.O. Box 66678, Baton Rouge, LA 70896. For answers to your questions about health and life insurance coverage, including benefits, premiums, and deduc...

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