TITLE
Recommendation to approve the selection of ICMA Retirement Corporation (ICMA-RC) as the single vendor for the City’s 457 Deferred Compensation Plan, authorize the contract process that will allow the City of Long Beach to draft the contract between the City of Long Beach and ICMA-RC, and authorize City Manager to execute the contract and all documents related to the contract. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
On December 20, 2005, the City Council authorized the City Manager to contract with a consultant to perform a comprehensive evaluation of the City's 457 Deferred Compensation Savings Plan (Plan), and to conduct a request for proposal for deferred compensation provider services (Attachment 1). As stated then, the City has a fiduciary obligation to prudently administer the Plan on behalf of employees and retirees, and in doing so to conduct examinations of current trends in deferred compensation management including services, service delivery and pricing.
As was communicated in a March 7, 2007 memo (Attachment 2), twenty-two bids were solicited from Plan providers, eight responded and three were selected by an employee committee to formally present. Of the three finalists, the employee committee determined that ICMA-RC clearly demonstrated the best approach to meeting the City's goal of maximizing the Plan's overall value to employees.
ICMA-RC's comprehensive approach to participant education was embraced by the committee and is confirmed by the wide array of retirement and financial planning education tools which include customized education materials, multiple communication channels, targeted and broad outreach campaigns, seminars, individual meetings, multi-lingual voice response unit (VRU), and a robust website providing for participant inquiries, transactions and targeted messaging. To further enhance the Plan's value to employees, ICMA-RC offered comprehensive financial planning services with a licensed Certified Financial Planner to all employees and acc...
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