Purdue takes steps to roll out enhanced investment opportunities for employees
Help sessions and workshops will be available later this year for all affected employees as Purdue prepares for enhancements to its defined contribution and voluntary savings retirement plans. The upcoming changes, prompted by a review of investment options by the Retirement Plan Review Task Force, will occur on Jan. 1 and will include changing the defined contribution retirement plan recordkeeper from TIAA-CREF to Fidelity. Fidelity will also be the recordkeeper for the voluntary retirement savings program.
"The Retirement Plan Review Task Force did a thorough job of reviewing our options," said James Almond, senior vice president for business services and assistant treasurer and co-chair of the task force. "This switch makes our good retirement plan even better. It will reduce employees' costs while providing a range of options so that participants can invest according to their risk tolerance, savings time horizon and other financial goals."
The changes affect the University-funded retirement contributions and voluntary retirement savings that individuals choose to invest themselves before taxes. The Board of Trustees approved a defined contribution retirement plan investment policy at its July 9 meeting, paving the way for the change and for establishing the new investment platform and continued monitoring of investment options for Purdue employees.
Complete details will be mailed to affected employees in information packets later this year. Presentations and help sessions, as well as workshops by Fidelity Investments, will be scheduled.
The base retirement plan for Purdue employees enrolled in PERF will not be affected by the change; however, PERF-covered employees participating in the voluntary retirement savings program will benefit from the enhancements.
A letter from Almond and task force co-chair Mikhail Atallah, associate department head and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, is here.
A list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the change is available here.
