What a difference a year makes! Tremendous improvements were made over the past year to help you meet your
retirement needs. Most noteworthy is that we renovated our facility making it ADA compliant to support
disabled members; redesigned our Internet site with detailed benefit information and explanations including
links to some of the most popular retirement Internet sites. We added a benefit calculator to our website
designed to help Defined Benefit Plan members calculate their projected retirement benefit; and developed
partnerships with Wachovia Bank and ICMA-RC that enabled us to sponsor educational seminars for City employees
to assist them with their financial and retirement planning.
You may have also noticed that we did not forget our retiree community through our campaign to increase their
participation in direct deposit. We look forward to the day when we have mailed our last paper benefit check.
Paper checks are costly to produce, mail, and replace for the System; not to mention the risk of unnecessary
delay for those who may not receive them should they become lost or stolen.With direct deposit your benefit
payment is assured to be in your account on pay day and its fast and reliable; no more depositing checks or
taking them to the bank. If you are still receiving a paper check; be good to yourself and sign up for direct
deposit today. Have no bank account? Not a problem. Our partner, Wachovia Bank, has guaranteed a free bank
account for all our members, including retirees. So sit back and enjoy the benefits of receiving your pension payment on time.
We are moving in new directions each day to better serve you. We will exploit the use of technology
to make it easier for you to apply for retirement, change your address information, complete forms,
or request additional services.
Your feedback is important to us. Should you visit our office or attend any of our educational seminars,
let us know how we are doing so that we may continue to serve you better as we operate an effective and
efficient Richmond Retirement System.