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Upon the death of a VCERA member, certain benefits may be payable to a surviving spouse, registered domestic partner or a designated beneficiary(ies).
2024 | Retiree Payment Date |
---|---|
January | January 31, 2024 |
February | February 29, 2024 |
March | March 29, 2024 |
April | April 30, 2024 |
May | May 31, 2024 |
Please CLICK HERE to access the Member Portal.
Please note: To access your account, you must register by creating a username and password. A registration guide is available for Active and Retired members.
The VCERA Member Portal is a password-protected and enabled with Multifactor Authentication. This self-service web portal allows you to conveniently view key elements of your retirement account. The portal is designed to give VCERA members up-to-date access to the retirement information most relevant to them:
If you need additional assistance, or experience any of the following issues:
Please contact the VCERA Member Portal hotline at (805) 677-8700 or send an email to memberportal@vcera.org. For all other member requests, call VCERA at (805) 339-4250 or send an email to VCERA.Info@ventura.org.
(Click here to report a death)
As a VCERA member, death and survivor benefits may be payable to your surviving spouse, minor children, other eligible beneficiary or estate. The type and amount of benefits depend on many different factors and can only be determined after a full review of the decedent’s individual circumstances. Below is an overview of the death and survivor benefits that may be payable upon the death of a member.
Although the California Supreme Court’s Alameda Decision touched all CERL retirement systems, VCERA was particularly impacted. The ruling affected multiple parts of VCERA’s operations, most importantly the recalculation of retirement benefits. To help members and stakeholders better understand the Alameda Decision, its broad impact and its implementation, VCERA has produced Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and a Glossary of Terms. All of the terms in the Glossary are used in the FAQs, so referring to the documents simultaneously is encouraged.
On May 20, 2024, the Board of Retirement voted to adopt a 7.9% interest rate on underpaid benefits stemming from Alameda-related corrections. Members who retired on or after July 30, 2020 who had certain estimated exclusions applied at the time of their initial retirement calculation may be affected.
In the Alameda Decision, issued on 7/30/2020, the California Supreme Court ruled that retirement boards, such as VCERA’s, could not include in Legacy members’ compensation earnable any pay items that were excluded by law, including “in-kind” benefits. “Flex credit” allowances provided to employees each pay period and applied to healthcare benefits are “in-kind” benefits that must be excluded.
VCERA has created the Alameda Administrative Appeal Request Form to provide members who are affected by the Alameda Decision with the opportunity to appeal VCERA’s corrections to their retirement accounts. Corrective actions could include removing certain pay items from a member’s final average compensation (FAC), refunding retirement contributions overpaid to VCERA, and reducing monthly retirement benefits.
VCERA is pleased to open recruitment for an Investment Officer. This position will assist the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) in overseeing VCERA’s public pension plan portfolio. To learn more about the job opening, click here to view the recruitment brochure. You can also click on the link below for more information and to apply.
The Alameda Decision excluded from Legacy members’ pensionable earnings payments for annual leave redemptions (i.e., vacation buydowns) that exceed what “may be earned and payable in each 12-month period” during their final average compensation (FAC) period. When multiple leave redemptions from two calendar years are paid in a 12-month period, the total redeemed hours in that period may exceed their redeemable calendar-year hour limit.
The 2024 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for eligible retirees, beneficiaries and other payees with a retirement date of April 1, 2024 or earlier will be reflected in retirement benefit payments on April 30, 2024:
Form 1099-Rs reporting the 2023 retirement earnings of retirees and other VCERA payees were mailed on January 26, 2024. The 1099-Rs are also available in Member Portal accounts. Members are encouraged to consult a qualified tax preparer with questions about their 2023 taxable income.
For information regarding income tax, please click here.
VCERA staff has provided the Board of Retirement with three Alameda Implementation status updates since October 2023. Highlights from those status reports include:
December 22, 2023 – The Ventura County Employees’ Retirement Association (VCERA) Board of Retirement has appointed Amy Herron as VCERA’s new Retirement Administrator, effective January 8, 2024. She will replace Rick Santos, who has held the position on an interim basis since August 2023, when the previous administrator retired.
On September 11, 2023, VCERA staff updated the Board of Retirement on the progress of the Alameda implementation, which is divided into two phases:
July 20, 2023 – The Ventura County Employees’ Retirement Association (VCERA) Board of Retirement has appointed Richard Santos as VCERA’s Interim Retirement Administrator. He will replace the retiring chief executive, Linda Webb, who held the position since 2015. Mr. Santos will begin meeting with Ms. Webb in early August before her departure later in the month.
Mr. Santos will lead VCERA until a full-time administrator is selected by the Board of Retirement following a nationwide recruitment that is scheduled to begin in September 2023.
VCERA contracts with PBI Research Services (PBI) for death and beneficiary audit services. In late May 2023, a third-party file transfer software used by PBI, MOVEit, identified a vulnerability in its software that was actively exploited by attackers. The exploit provided attackers the ability to gain access to the MOVEit Administrative Portal only. PBI stated that its core systems and software were not accessed.
When the California Supreme Court issued the Alameda Decision on July 30, 2020, it ruled that retirement boards do not have the discretion to include in Legacy members’ compensation earnable “in-kind” benefits. As determined in prior case law, “flex credit” payments that are applied to healthcare-related benefits are considered to be in-kind payments. Accordingly, flex credit amounts that cannot be received by employees in unrestricted cash must be excluded from compensation earnable. These in-kind payments are examples of an “Alameda Exclusion.”
Election results are in for the General Member, Safety Member and Retired Member seats on the VCERA Board of Retirement. On June 23, 2023, the Ventura County Elections Division issued certified results for the elections held on June 20, 2023. The following winning candidates will serve a three-term term starting on January 1, 2024.
For the General Member election, Greg Bergman received a plurality of the 743 votes cast among four candidates on the ballot.
June 15, 2023 – The Ventura County Employees’ Retirement Association (VCERA) today announced that Linda Webb has decided to step down as its Retirement Administrator, the chief executive position she has held since January 2015. The governing Board of Retirement is expected to appoint an interim administrator to lead the agency until a full-time replacement is identified following a nationwide recruitment.
An RFP for Actuarial Auditing Services was issued on June 5, 2023:
VCERA RFP for Actuarial Auditing Services
The following documents were posted on June 29, 2023 in response to vendor inquiries:
2023 Actuarial Audit RFP Q&As
2017 Actuarial Audit Presentation
Pay codes are used by employers to identify and classify types of pay remitted to employees. Some types of pay are includable in retirement earnings,* as determined by CERL and the Board of Retirement, and some are not. In the Alameda Decision, the California Supreme Court clarified for county retirement systems which categories of pay are excluded from a member’s retirement earnings.
VCERA’s 2023 annual benefit statements were mailed to all active VCERA members on May 4, 2023. If you have any questions about your statement, please contact VCERA at (805) 339-4250 or VCERA.info@ventura.org.
This meeting will be conducted by the Board of Retirement both in
person and by teleconference under California Government Code
Section 54953(b). Any person may view the meeting in person
at,
1190 S. Victoria Avenue, Suite 200, Ventura, CA 93003
Instructions on how the public can attend the Board meetings, is
posted on VCERA’s website in the Meeting Agendas & Minutes
section.
Upon the death of a VCERA member, certain benefits may be payable to a surviving spouse, registered domestic partner or a designated beneficiary(ies).