Teachers' Retirement System of OK

PROJECT PURPOSE

TRS is requesting ARPA funds to replace our pension administration system (PAS). TRS serves more than 184,000 Oklahomans - both active and retired public education employees. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted grave deficiencies in the current system. A replacement PAS would: ? Strengthen the Oklahoma economy by attracting quality public education employees. A new PAS would accomplish this by providing comprehensive tools for employees to better understand the benefits of a retirement from TRS. The PAS would offer a more efficient and transparent view of their retirement benefit?allowing members the ability to calculate their own retirement projections and look for ways to increase their final retirement benefit throughout the course of their career. ? Enhance services provided to TRS members by providing online, real-time retirement services access through a Member Portal. We serve over 67,000 retired members who comprise the most vulnerable/hardest hit demographic of the Covid-19 pandemic. An efficient online portal would allow all members to access/make changes to their retirement accounts without the necessity of travel to Oklahoma City or an in-person meeting. ? Expand digital infrastructure of the System by digitizing processes that are currently paper-intensive thereby increasing efficiency of the System while decreasing overhead costs.

EVIDENCE

Our current PAS has been in place since 2011. It is a "home-grown" system that has required extensive updates on a weekly basis incurring an annual cost of $350,000.00 as well as staff time.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

We serve over 184,000 members, of whom 67,000 are retired members which comprise the most vulnerable/hardest hit demographic of the Covid-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, our active members nearing retirement have had difficulty and delays working through the retirement process due to constraints on the ability to timely provide executed forms to TRS in accordance with statutorily mandated deadlines. Forms are required to be mailed or hand-delivered?TRS cannot accept these forms via e-mail as they contain sensitive personal identifying information. Retirees face similar issues when attempting to update direct deposit and beneficiary information as this information must also be mailed or hand delivered to TRS. A PAS offering an efficient online portal would allow all members to apply for and process retirements as well as access/make changes to their retirement accounts without the necessity of travel to Oklahoma City or submitting documents through regular mail.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Project performance will be measured based on: ? Research and communicate with other peer plans on best practices and pitfalls of PAS replacement. (Already in process) ? Identify and retain consultant to implement best practices and assist in managing project budget. ? Set project management timeline with quarterly milestones to ensure efficient implementation. ? Negotiate vendor contracts to incorporate incentive pay for timely implementation of quarterly milestones. ? Performance will be measured by adherence to project timeline and budget.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma