Council approves change of retirement recordkeeper after consultant review; retirees can opt to stay

The Greenbelt City Council voted to transition its 401(a) and 457(b) retirement plan recordkeeping and administrative services from ICMA MissionSquare to Nationwide following a consultant-led request-for-proposals and benchmarking review.

NFP, the city’s benefit consultant, presented benchmarking results that showed significantly lower record-keeping fee bids from Nationwide (reported final bid at 2 basis points) versus MissionSquare (rebid at 7 basis points). The consultant also outlined potential reductions in investment management costs by moving from retail share classes to lower-cost institutional or similar share classes.

Council debate focused on outreach and timing for retirees and active employees, service continuity, and recent customer-service complaints raised by a staff member. HR Director Dwayne Martinez and NFP representatives said retirees may keep accounts with MissionSquare or rollover to an IRA at any time; staff also described a typical trust-to-trust transfer process for active accounts that would take months to complete and require statutory notice. A city staff member described an urgent customer-service incident with MissionSquare that was resolved through HR staff intervention during the review process.

The motion to transition the plans was made by the Mayor Pro Tem and seconded by Councilmember Pompey; the council approved the change. Staff and the consultant said they will provide communications and training to current employees and retirees during the contract-transition period and that legal notifications will be issued in accordance with applicable rules.