Pensions

The retirement benefits industry has been through tremendous change over the past 20 years, making it hard to decide which retirement benefits to offer your workers. Some employers have stopped offering pensions – forcing workers to take on investment risk and responsibility for funding most or all of their retirements. But is that the best option for your ministry and workers?

For nearly 60 years, LCMS ministries have entrusted us to care for LCMS pastors, teachers and ministry workers of all types. By partnering with Concordia Plans, ministries are choosing to work with a team of professionals dedicated to supporting workers and their service, so they can focus on spreading God’s Word.

With Concordia Plans, ministries show their commitment to their workers by providing resources typically only available through large companies. Through the Concordia Retirement Plan pension and the Concordia Retirement Savings Plan 403(b) – two plans working in tandem – you help ensure LCMS workers can retire, creating a brighter future in appreciation for their service.

How does a pension work?

To put it simply, when eligible workers retire, they’ll receive monthly pension income benefits for the rest of their lives and a monthly benefit for their surviving spouse if they should predecease them.

As an employer, you contribute funds into the CRP on your workers’ behalf. Those funds are then pooled together with funds from other LCMS ministries and invested to fund the benefits for workers described under the two available benefit options.

The CRP offers two benefit options.

By providing the CRP pension, you’re helping to ensure your workers have a life-long steady stream of income in retirement. They’ll receive a monthly income benefit for life based on their length-o-service, salary, age and other factors. This pension benefit may be passed on to their surviving spouse, providing peace of mind in retirement. You can choose to offer the Traditional Option, or a combination of both the Account and Traditional Options.

The Traditional Option:

The CRP Traditional Option provides a secure monthly retirement pension benefit to vested workers based on their final average monthly compensation, years of creditable service, retirement date and the integration level. This monthly income will continue throughout the worker’s retirement.

The longer a worker is employed by an LCMS ministry and enrolled in the Plan, the higher their benefit will be in retirement. Rostered workers must be enrolled in this option.

The Account Option:

The Account Option provides a notional account balance that grows each year with the addition of compensation credits (based on the worker’s salary) and interest credits (based on the 30-year Treasury rate). If a worker leaves employment but is not ready to retire yet, the account balance will continue to accrue interest credits in the CRP or they can choose to roll over the balance to the CRSP, an individual retirement account or other qualified plan, or receive a cash distribution. If a worker stays with a participating LCMS ministry through retirement, the worker will have different distribution options, including a monthly pension benefit for life or a lump-sum distribution, making the Account Option the perfect blend of retirement benefits and flexibility. This Option tends to be a good solution for employers who have workers that do not typically stay with the ministry for their entire career. The Account Option is available for newly enrolled non-rostered workers.

Why should you consider offering the Concordia Retirement Plan?

A pension benefit provides income in retirement for the remainder of the worker’s life and potentially the spouse’s life. Your workers don’t have to worry about outliving their retirement resources; they can be confident in the fact they will have a monthly income for their lifetime and the lifetime of their spouse.

The pension is funded by your ministry and every contribution dollar helps care for workers and retirees by creating and sustaining life-long retirement income. Every dollar collected through ministry contributions adds to the CRP assets and allows the CRP to provide a steady stream of retirement income to individuals dedicated to His service. The collective strength of ministries coming together helps us provide benefits that are typically only available to those who work at larger employers.

By offering a pension plan, you are making an investment in your workers’ future. After years of service to the LCMS community, this benefit helps provide the retirement income they will need.

Having a pension can make it easier for you to recruit and retain your workers. Whether you are a church calling a pastor, a school hiring a teacher or an RSO recruiting staff, offering the CRP allows you to be competitive and help attract high-quality employees.

We diligently manage the assets of the Plans so we can fulfill our commitments. Unlike workers, the CRP has no retirement date, which allows us to implement a long-term investment strategy that focuses on workers’ needs today and for generations to come.

This long-term strategy enables us to make clear and calculated decisions about how the money is managed – even when there is volatility in the market. The CPS executive leadership team, investment management team and trusted professional investment advisors know how to weather economic storms and take advantage of new growth after a downturn.

Your workers will have access to a variety of financial well-being tools and resources to help them on the path to financial wellness. Our online tools will pre-populate with your workers’ projected benefits to make the financial and retirement planning process easier. Also, our Financial Educators are available to help answer your worker’s financial questions and provide guidance to help them achieve their financial goals.

You can make the difference in your workers’ future by providing pension benefits through the Concordia Retirement Plan.

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