Vendors tell Board of Regents task force phased retirement can aid retention but needs guardrails

TIAA, Voya and CoreBridge presented research and plan-design options to a Board of Regents task force considering phased retirement and changes to the optional retirement plan. The vendors emphasized portability, lifetime-income options and participant education as tools to improve retirement readiness and recruitment.

Karen Locke, managing director for government relations at TIAA, said the absence of Social Security for many Louisiana educators makes higher savings rates more important. "What you're currently making, you want to be able to be at 70 to 80%" of pre-retirement income, Locke said, noting that without Social Security participants must replace a larger share of their pay. Locke described portability and lifetime-income products as central to advisers’ work but declined to recommend policy choices, saying TIAA implements plan design determined by policymakers.

Danielle, a Voya presenter, summarized a Voya Cares/Easterseals study that categorized older workers into groups by motivation and financial need. She told the task force that "92% of people said that they wanted or needed more money for retirement," and urged education and transition tools (health-care counseling, annuitization options and digital planning resources) to help workers decide whether to annuitize or roll over balances.

CoreBridge representatives described hands-on advising and a planning tool they call the "retirement pathfinder" that models how contribution-rate changes affect individual retirement readiness. "We are fiduciaries," a CoreBridge speaker said, explaining the firm's emphasis on steering participants to the option that best fits their situation.

Task force members asked vendors for comparative benchmarks and clarification about whether peer-state employer contributions shown in slides included employer Social Security payroll costs; the vendors said the comparison focused on employer contribution lines and did not include employer Social Security payroll tax. Members also raised operational questions (timing for converting accrued leave, reenrollment mechanics) and asked staff to compile faculty sentiment and eligibility numbers for the next meeting.

The presentations framed phased retirement primarily as a knowledge-transfer and retention tool; staff and members said any recommendation would need system-specific guardrails on duration, eligibility and the treatment of health and retirement benefits. The task force did not adopt a formal policy at the meeting; members tasked HR leaders to provide counts of eligible or soon-to-be-eligible faculty for future cost estimates.