We want to thank all the NYCMEA retirees that attended out May 17,2011 meeting and also those that attended the MEA general membership meeting on June 9. If you have not yet done so please provide us with an e-mail address so that we may more easily contact you

With the federal government threatening changes to Medicare and Social Security we urge all members to be as involved as possible in keeping up with legislative issues. We urge you to join the New York City Association for Retired Americans (NYCARA) and/or the national ARA to keep you informed on these and other issues critical to retirees.

We would also like to bring to your attention a very good benefit provided by the City of New York.The NYC department of Parks and Recreation maintains recreation centers in the five boroughs. At a cost of $10 per year you can have use of their gym and pool facilities. To learn more please visit their web site www.nyc.gov/parks

Have a wonderful Summer. We look forward to our next meeting in the Fall

Lawrence Konstan, Chapter Director
Adrienne Leaf, Assistant Chapter Director
Michael Schady, Recording Secretary

The MEA RETIREES CHAPTER meeting was called to order at 11 AM Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by Lawrence Konstan, chairman at the MEA headquarters at 42 Broadway in Manhattan.

The first item on the agenda was adoption of the minutes for meeting of 1/25/11. The minutes were adopted unanimously as corrected (there were two minor typos).

The second item on the agenda was the prepared remarks by our guest speaker DOMINICK CORRADO (a current city employee). The topic of his talk was "FINANCIAL RISKS IN RETIREMENT". Mr. Corrado distributed literature correlated to his talk and power point presentation:

The four risks retirees face are:

• Longevity risk - Life expectancy is rising and we are expecting to live longer; as a result one can run the risk of outliving you retirement funds. You cannot outlive your pension, social security, and annuities; but all other sources of income i.e. CD's, savings accounts, money markets can be exhausted. This risk goes hand in hand with inflation risk.
• Inflation Risk - You can be too conservative thus your investments will not be sufficient to carry you through. Inflation diminishes the value of your money; your purchase power will be eroded and your income will be worth less over time.
• Investment risk - In this case, your money is safe but the income will not keep up with inflation. If possible and you can afford to do this and be prudent you should take a % of the portfolio and invest in securities (stocks, bonds, mutual funds) understanding the risk loss of principal if the market goes down.
• Health risk - It is prudent to consult with an attorney to protect all your assets especially in the case of declining health and diminished capacity.

There are ways to address the Longevity risk. Not everyone is able to take money and invest it in securities. Be careful and do research, take and invest only what you can afford to be without for 5-10 years and explore setting up an annuity. Another strategy to maximize your income is through CD laddering to get more interest. Set up a term of how long you will invest. Do not put all the money in one CD but divide up the funds into different CD terms starting at 3 months then 6 months and 1 year. If you do like to invest in stocks, utilities produce a relatively high dividend. When you take distribution you can take the cash or reinvest by buying more stocks to improve your rate of return. All of this is of course subject to Investment risk. Bank accounts are subject to Inflation risk if you keep the principal and live off the withdrawn interest.

If you can take 5% of your income per annum and invest in stocks you will to absorb the Investment risk. By increasing your portfolio you can combat the Investment risk and it will hopefully grow at a greater rate than the rate of inflation. Using the U.S. Treasury Inflation Protection Securities (TIPS) which are tied to the inflation index (Consumer Price Index) helps combat the Inflation risk. The rate of return is backed by the U.S. government.

Annuities are complicated and expensive they are used to turn a sum of money into a pension. There are two ways to structure annuities 1-Lifetime withdrawal 2- annuitize money.

Required Minimum Distribution (RMD'S) - Your money must be withdrawn starting at age 70 ½ and it is subject to being taxed. You must start to take your money out of 457's, 401k's etc. by December 31 of each year once you have reached the age requirement. The 1st RMD can be extended to April 1 but then you would have to take 2 RMD's for that calendar year. The IRS can penalize you severely if you do not do RMD's correctly.

The bottom line is that you must have a good plan to protect your life savings.

The third item on the agenda was the President's report. Stu Eber gave his report including a Legislative update and political report.



Many members want the 25/55 pension plan to be re-opened but that is not in the foreseeable future (if ever). Mr. Eber went on to state that by State constitution pensions get first crack at any and all monies coming into the State/City coffers. So it behooves all governmental pensioners to be wary of any call for a State Constitutional Convention, where drastic changes could be made to our pensions. Mr. Eber stated that a General Membership meeting is being planned with City Comptroller Liu on the subject of Pensions. This meeting is scheduled for Thursday June 9 at 5:45 pm at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth St, 2nd floor auditorium.

The fourth item on the agenda is was a brief report and comments by Chapter Chairperson Konstan. The chair talked about the anniversary of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and how there was a dearth of media coverage of this important anniversary which also shows a lack of support for all working people including and especially now, Public Employees.

Mr. Konstan went on to make an appeal for retirees who, now that they are no longer working, can help recruit new members and do more to make Public Employees better known and the MEA stronger. He announced that COMRO (Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations) is having their end of year luncheon in June. Membership in this umbrella organization is free with a suggested $10 donation. It provides e-mail updates on retiree issues nationwide and the Chairperson urged all to join.

The fifth item on the agenda was a report and comments made by the Executive Director Linda Barnes. She passed out literature concerning telemarketing harassment and reiterated the process of blocking telemarketing harassment calls on land based lines she also stated that contrary to what has been spread there is no truth in needing to register cell phones to block such calls. Ms Barnes went on to address the issue of scamming the elderly and mentioned common tips to prevent such felonious activity in the areas of Home Improvement, telephone request for financial and personal information including social security numbers; Medicare scams, direct mailing scams, and bait and switch scams by store salesman.

Ms Barnes also made a plea for retirees to share any Human Interest stories about themselves for consideration to be included in the MEA Newsletter.

Item six on the agenda was the COMRO report by MEA Treasurer Warren Lewis. He stated that Comptroller John Liu addressed the last COMRO meeting and defended Public Employees. He said that as per the NY Times, Medicare is due to run out of funds sometime around 2024 and Social Security will run dry in 2036.

Mr. Lewis stated that our COLA will be about 1.4% ($252 for those receiving at least $18,000 pension). This will appear in our September pension checks.

There was motion to adjourn which was carried unanimously.

Respectfully submitted
Michael J. Schady
Recording Secretary

NYC Employee Retirement System
Management Benefits Fund
Social Security Administration
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services