Top Story President's Corner Industry Viewpoint Washington Report Around the Country Member Benefit Spotlight New Members Print Version [PDF]

We had an incredible 27th NAGDCA Annual Conference. We had a record 698 registered attendees. Please read the "Top Story" that highlights the conference. Also, there are great pictures posted on the website. Thank you to all the mentors that made the student program a big success again this year. We had 27 leadership recognition award winners. Additionally, the continuing education credits were a very successful additional benefit for our members this year.

Welcome to our new Executive Board members - Beth Kushner from City of New York and Brian McCleave, from Prudential. Congratulations also go out to Rod Craine who was voted in as the new Industry Board member-at-large.

We are so excited that we now have a National Save for Retirement Week October 22-28. We hope you are gearing up with your plan activities. Senators Smith and Conrad's offices introduced and passed as a unanimous consent Senate Resolution 550 in September. A nationally recognized Save for Retirement Week will be an extremely important tool in heightening the awareness and importance of saving with your Plan participants. NAGDCA has developed a web page and an electronic postcard that was sent to the membership. On the website you will find brochures and games and ideas to promote your plans. Several news releases went out on this.

During the next 12 months, NAGDCA and the Art Caple Foundation will be concentrating on fund raising to continue supporting scholarships for students interested in the retirement industry.

We are hoping to finalize the NAGDCA Ethics Policy. Comments are due to AMR and NAGDCA Headquarters by October 31, 2006. We will then conduct an electronic vote to adopt the final version.

The new brochures are on the website:

• Handling of Employees in the Military (Withdrawals/Catch-up Issues),
• Preparing and Evaluations of RFP's (combined with How to Select a Vendor), and
• Auto Enrollment/Increasing Participation. (The Stable Value Investment Association will be publishing the Auto Enrollment/Increasing Participation brochure in their trade publication once the brochure is finalized. This will increase exposure for NAGDCA.)

The board adopted a new investment policy statement at their last board meeting. It is currently on the NAGDCA website under general information.

NAGDCA's 2006 defined contribution survey will be published on CD and available in mid-November free of charge to those who completed the survey. It will be available for purchase by members who did not complete it as well as non-members. Overall responses increased by 35% with a total of 105 responses (73 - 457, 13 - 401(k), 17 - 401(a), and 2 - 403(b))

We will have another webcast on December 11th, 2006. The topic is Special Circumstances (Leaves/Absence, Loans and Military Catch-up). Mindy Harris (Multnomah County, OR) will be moderating this webcast and the speakers will include June Metts Dennis (Commonwealth of Virginia); Brian McCleave (Prudential Financial); and Iris Ward (ING). We also plan on doing a webcasts in 2007 on HR4 and possibly the final 403(b) regs.

I look forward to serving you as the NAGDCA president throughout the coming year. We will continue working together to help our participants obtain financial security for their retirement.

Let's remember our Mission Statement:

NAGDCA's mission is to unite representatives from state and local governments along with private sector organizations that service and support defined contribution plans. NAGDCA provides an environment to foster growth in professional development of its members through networking with peers, educational opportunities and information sharing that includes comprehensive publications, reports and surveys. NAGDCA will promote and support federal legislative initiatives for the advancement of retirement plans.