Finance

Contributory Retirement Board

Peter J. Fulton, Chair
Gail Eagan-Henry, Town Accountant
Anthony T. Logalbo, Finance Director
Arnold Roth
Brian J. Whitney
Karen Manchuso, Retirement Assistant

The Concord Retirement Board administers the Contributory Retirement System. The employee groups covered by the Retirement System include the Town of Concord (including non-teaching staff of the Concord K-8 School Department), the Concord-Carlisle Regional School District non-teaching staff and the Concord Housing Authority. The system covers all employees working at least 25 hours per week in permanent employment, except for teaching personnel (who are members of the State Teacher Retirement System). The Town Accountant by statute is a member of the Board of Retirement and is manager of the System's accounting records. The Town Treasurer is the Treasurer of the Retirement System. Staff of the Concord Town Treasurer and the Town Accountant provide administrative support for the System. The Retirement System operates on a calendar year fiscal period.

The Division of Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (perac) Annual Report for the year ending December 31, 2005, reported the following data regarding Concord's system:

The Retirement Board has adopted a funding schedule to amortize the remaining unfunded liability by 2012 using a level amortization. The funding schedule determines the annual employer contributions to be paid by the Town of Concord, the Concord-Carlisle Regional School District and the Concord Housing Authority.

The next actuarial valuation will be done for a date of January 1, 2008. The funding schedule may be revised based on the results of each biennial study.

At December 31, 2005, system membership was 451 active members and 246 retired members.

The Retirement System maintains the following fund balances:

The Annuity Savings Fund contains the accumulated contributions plus earnings of active member employees and terminated employees who have not withdrawn their balances. By law, interest earnings to be credited to the individual member account within this fund (and the Annuity Reserve Fund) is set by the State for the calendar year at the average passbook savings rate of the prior year, not at the earnings rate actually realized by the System.

The Annuity Reserve Fund contains the accumulated contributions and earnings of members receiving retirement or disability payments. Accumulated balances are transferred to this fund from the Annuity Savings Fund upon a member's retirement.

The Special Military Services Fund contains employer appropriations for certain armed services veterans who qualify for additional benefits under Massachusetts law.

The Pension Fund receives and maintains the employer contributions. Retirement benefits funded by employer contributions are disbursed from this fund.

The Pension Reserve Fund receives excess investment income (if any) after allocations are made to all other funds. This fund also receives any pension assessments made against federal grants and any forfeit of accumulated interest by a member withdrawing from the system before 5 years (all annuity account interest is forfeited) or ten years (50% of annuity account interest is forfeited).

The Expense Fund receives and disburses monies associated with the Retirement Board's administrative expenses.

A three-year comparison (2003-2005) of total assets by fund is shown here.

Retirement System Statement - (File requires Adobe Reader or equivalent.)