Executive Director Update: New Member Handbook + Misleading Marketing Emails

I have an important warning this month about misleading emails that shady marketers are sending to public school employees, but first I have an important announcement. For the first time in many years, ATRS now has an official Member Handbook.

The 2024-2025 ATRS Member Handbook outlines all of the benefits and options available to ATRS members and answers many of the questions that members might have. Most other retirement systems around the country publish a member handbook, so I’m proud that we are now offering this useful resource to our members. We plan to revise it annually so that it always has current information.

You can find the new Member Handbook on the Publications page on our website, or you can click here:

https://www.artrs.gov/Publications/ATRS2425Handbook.pdf

Now for the warning. If you work in an Arkansas public school, you may have gotten unsolicited emails in the last couple of months that sounded like they might be from ATRS. These emails will typically include your name and may even list your school district’s name. The emails may have a subject that reads something like, “Annual Pension Review,” and they usually offer to schedule a meeting or phone call.

One email I saw began, “It’s that time of year again to schedule a one-on-one consultation” about retirement. Another one read, “Each year, as a member of the Arkansas State Public Retirement System, you are eligible to schedule a phone call or videoconference off campus.”

These emails may have a disclaimer at the bottom that says they are not employees of the retirement system. But when a busy public school employee glances at the email, it can be easy to mistake it as a message from ATRS. Please know that these emails have nothing to do with ATRS, they are sent by marketers trying to sell investment or insurance products, or worse, by scammers trying to steal your identity or money.

You may be wondering how they got your name and email address. There are data brokers that compile names and email addresses of public school employees and sell them to marketers. One way these brokers obtain your information is by sending Freedom of Information requests to school districts for lists of all employees and their email addresses. By law, school districts have to provide them this information. That’s why these marketers target employees of public schools and public colleges and universities. And they do it all over the country.

It is very important for you to understand that these marketers do not have access to your ATRS records. We at ATRS never disclose any of your information to private marketers. If they have your email address, they did not get it from us.

And more importantly, these marketers do not have your retirement records. They cannot give you an official projection of your retirement benefits. They do not have access to the salary and service records that ATRS has on file for you. The only way they can tell you anything about your retirement benefits is if you give them that information.

ATRS will never contact you unsolicited to schedule a retirement consultation. We schedule those only when you reach out to us and ask for one.

So, if you get an email about retirement, and you’re not sure if it is from ATRS, check the sending email address. Any email from ATRS will always come from an email address that ends in “.gov”. If an email address ends in “.com” or anything else, it is not from ATRS.

The emails from these marketers come from several different email address domains. I found one outfit in Nevada that operates under 20 different website names, all trying to attract retirement plan members like you. Some of the Internet addresses to watch out for include:

• mypensioneducation.com
• americanpension-retirement.com
• mypensionassistance.com
• myretirementrep.com

Also pay attention to the phone numbers they use. A call from ATRS will always come from the 501 area code. And if you ever have any doubt about whether the person you are talking with is actually with ATRS, tell them you want to call them back to verify, and call our main number, (501) 682-1517.

 

LEGISLATIVE UPDATES

The 95^th General Assembly will convene at the State Capitol at noon on Monday, January 13. ATRS will be asking legislators to consider 7 bills that would make minor changes and technical corrections. None of them would reduce or harm any member’s benefits. I will send you a list of those 7 bills once they are filed. And I’m sure that legislators will file other bills relating to ATRS.

If you would like to keep up with the Legislature’s activity, you can sign up for the weekly email updates I will be sending out. If you subscribe, each week you will get a summary from us of all the legislative activity that impacts ATRS members. If you would like to receive those weekly update emails, please go to the following link and enter your email address to subscribe:

https://www.artrs.gov/sign-up-for-legislative-updates

Of course, if there is any bill filed that represents a threat to ATRS members, we will send out an email notice to all of our members. But for those who want to keep a closer tab on the Legislature, this new email list will keep you updated.

 

RETIREMENT PAY SCHEDULE

For our retirees, we have now posted to the website our 2025 benefit payment schedule. To find out when your payment will be sent out each month, please click here:
https://www.artrs.gov/benefit-payroll-schedule

 

HOLIDAY GREETINGS

For our Active ATRS members working in Arkansas’s public schools, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas break and are able to relax and enjoy time with family and friends. And for all of our members, we at ATRS wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday season!

Mark White
Executive Director, ATRS
MarkW@artrs.gov
Office: (501) 621-8853
Cell: (501) 541-2057

Public Notice: ATRS Board of Trustees Election 2025

PUBLIC NOTICE

Arkansas Teacher Retirement System (ATRS)

Board of Trustees Election 2025

 

Election of the following 2 positions on the ATRS Board of Trustees is scheduled for March, 2025: Position No. 3 (Certified Member Trustee – 3rd Congressional District, Requires State Teaching Licensure), and Position No. 10 (Retired Trustee).

Candidates for Position No. 3 must:

1. Be active members of ATRS or participants in the Teacher Deferred Retirement Option Plan (T-DROP) who are receiving T-DROP deposits;
2. Have a minimum of 5 years of actual service in ATRS;
3. Be employed primarily in a position that requires state teaching licensure or its equivalent, but not an administrator’s license; and
4. Be employed by a participating employer in the 3rd Congressional District.

Eligible voters for Position No. 3 must be:

1. Active ATRS members (includes T-DROP participants), regardless of credited service;
2. Employed by a participating employer located in the 3rd Congressional District; and
3. Employed primarily in a position that requires state teaching licensure or its equivalent, but not an administrator’s license.

Candidates for Position No. 10 must be:

1. Retired members of ATRS; and
2. Residents of the State of Arkansas.

Eligible voters for Position No. 10 must be retired members of ATRS, regardless of present employment status or residency.

Nomination for election shall be upon receipt of a petition signed by at least 25 voters who are eligible to vote for the trustee position for which the member is seeking nomination. For verification of each member’s eligibility to vote for the position, the petition must include each signatory’s legibly printed name and signature, and the last four digits of each signatory’s Social Security number. Nominating petitions and a candidate information form must be filed with the Executive Director of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System by Friday, January 10, 2025. Petitions may be requested by contacting Tammy Porter by email at tammyp@artrs.gov or by phone at 501-682-6149.

The ATRS Board of Trustees will employ an independent contractor who will mail ballots to eligible voters' addresses of record and will also collect, count, and certify election results.

• Deadline for nomination: Friday, January 10, 2025.
• Ballots mailed: Saturday, March, 15, 2025.
• Deadline for ballots to be returned: Tuesday, April 15, 2025.
• Results certified: Sunday, April 20, 2025. 

If no candidate receives at least 50% of votes cast by eligible voters on the first ballot, a run-off election will be held between the 2 candidates receiving the highest number of votes for the position. The Schedule for the run-off election will be as follows:

• Run-off ballots mailed: Thursday, May 1, 2025.
• Deadline for ballots to be returned: Sunday, June 1, 2025.
• Results certified: Thursday, June 5, 2025.

If a candidate receives at least 50% of the votes cast on the first ballot, they will be declared the winner of the election and will assume office on July 1, 2025. If a run-off election is necessary, the candidate receiving at least 50% of the votes cast in the runoff will be declared the winner of the election and will assume office on July 1, 2025.

The term of office of each elected trustee is 6 years. Each trustee shall continue to serve as trustee until his or her successor is elected.

If any of the above fixed dates fall on a weekend or holiday, that date is moved to the next regular work day.

The ATRS Board of Trustees and ATRS staff do not and will not endorse any candidate for election to the Board of Trustees.