News Features

Current board members Mitchell Vogel and Fred Giertz have been elected to continue serving on the State Universities Retirement System (SURS) Board of Trustees by the System’s annuitants. The election was conducted April 1 – May 3 by YesElections, an impartial election services company.

The FY 2022 Benefit Choice Period to make health insurance changes is May 1 through June 1, 2021. This affects SURS active members as well as annuitants and survivors not enrolled in the Medicare Advantage 'TRAIL' Program. This is the only time of the year, other than when you experience a "qualifying change in status," that you may change your insurance coverage.

Members can view and make changes to their coverage through the MyBenefit’s website at MyBenefits.illinois.gov. Paper enrollment forms are no longer provided.

SURS is offering a new voluntary savings plan called the SURS Deferred Compensation Plan (DCP) through participating SURS employers.

The SURS DCP will provide members another avenue to save more and generate additional retirement income. Learn more and see if your employer has adopted the plan.

Read details about the upcoming trustee election, new Deferred Compensation Plan, investments, legislation and a letter from our interim executive director.

SURS has won a first-place Eddy Award from Pensions & Investments newspaper for its communications efforts in promoting the redesign of its defined contribution plan - the Retirement Savings Plan.

The Eddy Awards are given annually to private companies and public pensions for excellence in communications campaigns. Awards are given in six categories: plan conversions/403(b) consolidations, financial wellness, plan transitions, pre-retirement preparation, ongoing investment education and special projects. SURS was honored in the plan conversion category.

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: