The NRTA Pension Round Table (PRT)
History
The Pension Round Table was established as an ad hoc group in 1995. Its original members were invited to Washington to examine issues related to protection of pension funds, and to serve members by educating them about pensions and about state and national policies related to pensions. In March 2000, members adopted a structure for the Round Table that would ensure continuity and maintain the high level of professionalism for which the PRT has come to be known.
Mission
The mission of the NRTA Pension Round Table is to monitor trends in public employee retirement issues including pensions and other benefits, and to develop recommendations regarding research, public policy and advocacy to NRTA: AARP's Educator Community.
Membership
Members are nominated by their state Retired Educator Associations (REAs). Nominees must have at least two years experience in any of the following areas: lobbying at the state level on public employee issues; participating as a member of a public employee retirement board or state legislative committee; or conducting research on public pension issues.
Members serve three-year terms, staggered to maintain a core group of knowledgeable pension professionals. The president of the Association of State Retired Teacher Executives (ASRTE) and a representative of the National Council on Teacher Retirement (NCTR) also serve.
PRT Activities
PRT members review legislative actions and statutes that affect retired educators and other recipients of public pensions, and recommend areas for research and/or study by the Pension Round Table or by independent researchers retained by NRTA or AARP. The members of the Pension Round Table work with NRTA professional staff to develop and prioritize the agenda for each meeting. They meet approximately twice per year, most often in Washington, DC.
Publications undertaken on the recommendation of the PRT include:
- Check List for Public Employee Retirement Systems (1997)
- Is Your Pension Protected? A Compilation of Constitutional Pension Protections (2000)
- Fighting Inflation: How Does Your COLA Compare? (Updated in 2004; previous studies published in 1997, 2000, and 2002).
- The Impact of Cyclical Trends in Investment Returns on the Funding of State Teacher Retirement Plans. This study was presented to the November 2005 PRT meeting by Dr. Stanley Wisniewski, President of Workplace Economics, Inc. You are welcome to print and distribute this study.
More Information
For more information about the Pension Round Table, please contact Dara Lenhof Dann:
Tel: (202) 434-3931
Email: DDann@aarp.org.
