News Features

Martin Noven, executive director of the State Universities Retirement System (SURS), resigned his position on Feb. 18 to focus his attention on a new career opportunity.

SURS Board of Trustees thanked Noven for his accomplishments over the past four years.

Noven became SURS executive director on Nov. 2, 2016, succeeding W. Bryan Lewis and following a career as senior director for government markets at TIAA (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America).

SURS will hold a trustee election April 1 - May 3, to fill two expiring annuitant positions. There are also two expiring active-member seats on the board, but because only two active SURS members successfully completed petitions with the required 400 signatures, it will not be necessary to hold an election for those seats.

Active-Member Trustees
The following active-members will begin serving six-year trustee terms on July 15:

Many SURS members have recently received unsolicited, potentially misleading emails from companies not affiliated with SURS offering retirement counseling. These emails may appear to come from SURS or appear to represent SURS. They do not.

SURS encourages members to be cautious of email solicitations and skeptical of any attempts by outside firms to request personal or financial information.

Please read your emails carefully and respond accordingly.

SURS 102-page annual report outlining assets; liabilities; employer contributions; investment policies, objectives and performance highlights; manager fees; membership and benefit statistics and more is available online for members to review. It is divided into five sections for easy navigation. www.surs.org/annual-financial-report

Thirteen SURS members have submitted applications for the upcoming trustee election including five active members and eight annuitants. The election will be held April 1 – May 3, 2021, to fill two expiring annuitant seats and two expiring active-member seats.

The two active-member trustee terms are six-year terms. One annuitant trustee term is a six-year term, and the other is a three-year term created by the years left in an unexpired six-year term. Members who have submitted applications include:

Attention active SURS members in the Traditional and Portable Plans, you can log on to the SURS secure Member Website and view your current account information via your personal Member Summary page.

It’s easy! Go to www.surs.org, click the gold login button in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage and follow the prompts.

First-time users will need to complete the secure Member Website registration process to access their homepage. Once you’re logged in, click on the "My SURS" tab from your homepage to view the Member Summary page.

The State Universities Retirement System (SURS) will hold a board election April 1 – May 3, 2021, to fill four expiring trustee positions: two annuitant seats and two active-participant seats. An impartial election services company, YesElections, will conduct the election. Candidate packets and petition forms are available from SURS. Candidates should contact Kelly Carson at kcarson@surs.org for information. Applications are due Dec. 31, 2020. Completed petitions will be due to SURS on Jan. 31, 2021.

The State Universities Retirement System of Illinois is searching for its first Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) to help shape and foster the system’s internal diversity and inclusion strategy, as well as strengthen investment manager and contractor programs.

The State of Illinois TRAIL Medicare Advantage open enrollment period for participating annuitants and survivors is October 15 - November 16, 2020. The 2021 plan year will begin January 1, 2021, and will run through December 31, 2021.