YOUR PENSION YOUR FUTURE

When you have decided on the day you’d like to retire, contact us up to 90 days prior at our office line (559) 457-0681 or by email [email protected].

 

 

You will be assigned to a Retirement Specialist, who will contact you to schedule a counseling session to go over your retirement options. Currently, we are only scheduling appointments for members who are within 90 days of their retirement date. Counseling sessions typically take 45 minutes to an hour. Retirement involves a lot of decisions, such as what option you will choose in retirement. Who will you list as your beneficiary? Is the Temporary Annuity Option right for you? The retirement specialist can help you with information regarding these questions, but they cannot make a decision for you. Your spouse, other family member, or financial planner is welcome to attend with you, however, we strongly discourage bringing children as it can be hard to focus on the information you are receiving.

 

Some members decide to take a day to decide on an item like what option to choose in retirement. After the counseling session, the Retirement Specialist will give you a timeline of when to submit any remaining documents in order to process and distribute your monthly benefit check. Retirees are paid once a month on the last County of Fresno business day of the month.

If you believe that you are disabled, please look at our disability retirement section here.

 

 

Members can utilize the FCERA Member Portal to find out their estimated benefit amount.  The Benefit Calculator inside the member portal can help a member estimated monthly benefit amounts for various dates.

 

If you have an account, you can log into the portal or you can register for an account here:  Member Portal | Register

 

You can view more information about the FCERA Member Portal here: Creating a Member Portal Account

 

If you have any questions please contact our office.

Notify the FCERA office immediately by mail or in person using the Name and Address Change Form. For your protection, all requests for address changes must be made in writing and submitted by mail or drop off to our office. If you have health insurance or REFCO dues being deducted, you will need to contact these agencies to notify them of your change of address.

No, members do not need to notify FCERA when they terminate employment because FCERA is officially notified of changes in employment status via the payroll process. When FCERA receives this information, staff reviews the contribution history and service credit accrual for the affected members and provides them with a Disposition form and Instructions This form provides more detailed information regarding the options available to you.

We want to assure our members and beneficiaries that they receive a defined/guaranteed pension benefit from FCERA that is calculated based on age, years of service, final highest average salary, retirement tier, and a member chosen survivor benefit option at the time of retirement… regardless of investment market fluctuations.

 

We worry, so you don’t have to, however, we understand your concerns.  Volatility in the markets is to be expected.  The fact that the markets have been very consistent over the last several years has caused us to forget this fundamental characteristic.  If you have your own assets for which you are responsible, now isn’t a bad time to consider your savings and investing time horizons, and to re-evaluate your personal risk tolerance.  If you need assistance, speak to a financial advisor for assistance with your personal assets.  FCERA does not offer any financial advice or referral services. We provide guaranteed pensions.

(Link to PDF)

 

Fresno County Employees’ Retirement Association (“FCERA”) FAQ Response

 

Question
How does a new asset manager establish a relationship with FCERA?

 

Answer
From Donald C. Kendig, CPA the Retirement Administrator (Head of Investments):

 

Thank you for your interest in working with FCERA. We are a great organization to partner with once you get to know us. That said, please keep in mind:

 

Avoid generic outreach. Automated mass emails, off-the-shelf marketing pieces, or scripted messages from purchased data or uncurated AI searches are not effective. You will get about as much time and energy from us as you put into us. Don’t get lost in the wave of AI generated Cheese Whiz be gouda than that. If you don’t know what your message means, chances are we won’t either.

 

Do your homework. Building new relationships starts with preparation. We generally do not respond to canned messages, and we do not take voice or video calls for marketing purposes. However, we are glad to meet in person at our offices, conferences, and industry events. If you do not know what asset classes we are investing in, you have not done your homework and it will show.

 

Enthusiasm gap. I guarantee that we are not nearly as excited about your investment activities, performance, or white papers as you are. We are excited about our own activities.  Please do not be discouraged.  It is just what it is. Your latest performance numbers might be awesome and that rocks your latest bonus, but it does nothing for us.  We can’t invent enthusiasm where there is none.  We are not invested yet and have no vested feelings one way or the other and have received 1,000’s of intro emails citing stellar performance and that is it.  Recycle!

 

Focused effort. General “solve all your problems” approaches will not work during this day and age of information overload. We will not tolerate spitballing, with the hope that something fits, and neither will our consultants.  See what we need, provided you have competitive performance, and reach out with that.

 

Sorting problem. It’s a sorting problem in the end. We have 1,000’s of options and you have 1,000’s of leads. Focus on the good leads with the best fit. Odds are long.

 

Areas of Interest. How do I put this? We are interested in everything but not looking for anything.  There is an oversupply of investment opportunities when, most times, we have no demand for them.  We are not hungry for investment opportunities or investment meetings but aren’t sticking our heads in the sand either.  We have a stable investment program and a healthy curiosity, but our public and private investments are monitored and sourced by our consultants.  What they are interested in matters, almost more.

 

Consultant Factor. At FCERA, our consultants play a central role in manager sourcing and underwriting:

 

     * Private Credit: Aksia (discretionary – Trevor Jackson and Melisa Zarate – No Venture)

     * Private Equity: Hamilton Lane (discretionary – Ilene Levinson – No Venture)

     * All Other Asset Classes: NEPC (non-discretionary, responsible for sourcing and initial underwriting and like to know when you have met with us – Daniel Hennessy – No hedge funds, crypto, digital assets, or commodities. If it is not listed as a “No” and falls into one of our existing asset classes, bringing it up could be worthwhile. If you want us to consider a new asset class to accommodate your offering, that could require some mountain moving first: consultant needs to think it is a good idea, consultant needs to pitch it to the Board of Retirement during its triennial asset-liability study, Board of Retirement needs to approve, consultant brings implementation options, and then a select few are invited to pitch (possibly you but no guarantees).

 

Caveats. Staff are not evaluated or rewarded based on new manager meetings / engagements and we do not direct our consultants on which managers to approve, but we will share that we met with you if we think there is potential, and you are encouraged to share with our consultants that you met with us. I hear they like that.

* Our consultants ultimately decide and provide recommendations to us. We are not in the driver’s seat.

* We are glad to meet in person at our offices, or chat at conferences and industry events. For office visits, we generally fit in one 30-minute meeting a day right before lunch.

* We rarely, if ever, take voice or video calls for marketing purposes.

 

Our asset allocation, manager lineup, and Investment Policy Statement are posted on our website.  Further, reviewing our quarterly investment results and Board meeting materials will help you determine whether your firm’s strategies may be a fit.

 

We are confident your firm has much to offer, but we ask that you bring us genuine solutions, instead of busy work. Thoughtful, well-researched outreach will be received far more positively than generic or misdirected approaches.

 

Thank you for your patience and persistence. If our paths cross at a conference, my investment team will be glad to spend time with you.