Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Pensions Administration topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Utah Retirement Systems says backlog nearly cleared after staffing and process changes
Summary
URS officials told the committee a multi-year manual process and an IT modernization project created a backlog in retirement application processing; new hires, reassignments and employer coordination reduced the count from hundreds beyond the 90‑day target to about 16 cases.
Utah Retirement Systems (URS) told the Retirement and Independent Entities Committee it has reduced a backlog in initial retirement payments by addressing staffing shortages, reassigning employees from an IT project and improving employer and member data collection.
The update matters because delayed initial retirement payments affect retirees’ household finances and public confidence in benefit administration; URS described corrective measures and set expectations for further improvements when a new system goes live.
Dan Anderson, executive director of URS, said the retirement application, calculation and payment process is largely manual today and URS has been implementing a new system intended to enable more straight‑through electronic processing. Anderson said URS chose not to expand the benefits department while the IT project was underway and that staff reallocations and departures left the department short-handed during a critical phase. “We will get to here in a minute the new system that we're in the process of implementing,” Anderson said. “We immediately started to address the situation” by hiring new staff, reassigning employees back to benefits work and bringing in other departments.
Anderson said URS had at one point been “maybe 300 applicants beyond the 90 days,” a level he described as unacceptable; by the time of the committee meeting URS reported about 16 applicants remaining beyond the 90‑day target. He noted common causes for extended timelines include incomplete employer or member information and unresolved domestic relations orders related to divorce.
Committee members asked how retirees were notified and how URS communicated progress. Anderson said URS sent letters to applicants when cases exceeded 90 days and that the letters prompted follow-up conversations. Representative Kristofferson asked for a step‑by‑step explanation of the current retirement process; Anderson described the process at a high level: members may request estimates during their careers; they may apply up to 90 days before or after the final day of work; URS reviews hire and termination dates and earnings and performs multiple manual checks before payment runs at the end of the month.
On automation, Anderson said the new system will provide more timely status information to applicants and noted a planned go‑live for the new system of March 30, 2026. Representative Thurston asked for confirmation that the system will improve automation; Anderson said it will and scheduled a more detailed update on March 30. URS staff said they are monitoring metrics regularly and will intervene if delays recur; Kendall Grama (managing director of retirement) and Dustin Seeley (manager of retirement calculations) were named as operational leads overseeing the recovery and monitoring effort.
Committee members requested improved advance notice to legislative staff if service issues recur, so lawmakers can respond quickly to constituent inquiries. URS agreed to keep the committee informed of material reversals in progress.
