Current IMRF Executive Trustee Tom Kuehne was unopposed in seeking a new five-year term of office. Kuehne's new term as Executive Trustee will run January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2027.

Kuehne has served on the IMRF Board since 2013. He was Board President in 2016 and is Board Vice President in 2022. He currently chairs the Board’s Legislative Committee and serves on the Audit, Benefit Review, and Investment committees. Kuehne is the Finance Director/Treasurer of the Village of Arlington Heights, IL.

“It is an honor to continue to participate in the excellent work of the IMRF Board and staff as we navigate through these challenging times,” Kuehne said. “In my new term, I will continue to look for ways for IMRF to consistently attain its policy of 100% funding.” 

IMRF's Board of Trustees 

IMRF is governed by an eight-member Board of Trustees elected by the people and institutions IMRF serves. Four Executive Trustees are elected by participating units of government, three Employee Trustees are elected by active members, and one Annuitant Trustee is elected by Retirees. The IMRF Board has many responsibilities including authorizing IMRF investments, approving the administrative budget, and setting employer contribution rates.

Certain increases in reported earnings during a member's Final Rate of Earnings (FRE) period result in additional pension costs. Employers are required to pay this additional cost immediately upon the member's retirement. This payment is called an Accelerated Payment.

The statute requires that the AP is charged when these increases are more than either 6% or 1.5 times the annual CPI-Urban from the preceding September, whichever is higher. Due to inflation, IMRF expects that this number will be at least 8%, but the exact number will not be available until mid-November.

IMRF will implement the new rate starting January 1, 2023.

Estimate your future Accelerated Payment

To help you estimate your future cost of an increase in reported earnings, we updated the Accelerated Payment spreadsheets for Tier 1 and 2, found in the Quick Links section.

If you are planning to provide a member with an increase in reported earnings, you can use these spreadsheets to estimate future cost (payable when the member retires).

Download the Excel spreadsheets to estimate the amount of any Accelerated Payment:

• Your actual Accelerated Payment may be different, either higher or lower than the estimate provided by the spreadsheets.
• The spreadsheets can be used only for members within 10 years of retirement.

Review the rules regarding paying member contributions, bonuses, prizes, and gifts. 

• Some employers pay all or a part of the member's IMRF contribution. Those "employer-paid member contributions" are considered a salary increase, or a raise, to the member and are considered income for all payroll tax purposes. Contact IMRF if you are paying member contributions on behalf of a member. (See section 4.24 I of the AA manual.)
• Cash awards, prizes, and bonuses constitute IMRF earnings and are reportable to IMRF. (See section 3.96 F7 of the AA manual.)
• Gifts Non-cash (in-kind) gifts to employees are not IMRF earnings and are not reportable to IMRF. Gift cards are an example. (See section 3.96 F8 of the AA manual.)

For this year's National Retirement Security Month, IMRF presents this opportunity to test your Voluntary Additional Contributions (VAC) knowledge.

National Retirement Security Month, which is an annual effort to raise public awareness about the importance of saving for retirement, provides an opportunity for your employees to reflect on their personal retirement goals.

Take a quiz to test your knowledge! 

IMRF's VAC program is a way to help members save additional retirement income. With this program members can choose to make additional, after-tax contributions to an individual VAC account that earns interest.

The robust interest rate of IMRF’s VAC program makes it a particularly attractive retirement savings option during times of market volatility.

Take the IMRF VAC quiz now!

Then forward this article to the IMRF members you work with. Or print out a flyer and post it in your breakroom.

If you want to learn more about the VAC program first, read the web page for your plan and tier.

We offer these online webinars for Authorized Agents to learn more about IMRF procedures and how to administer IMRF. Register today!

• Module 1: Introduction, Enrollment, Wage Reporting, and Termination – will be offered again in the future   
• Module 2: IMRF Benefits, Employer Rates, and Legislation – Oct 25, 2022 at 9:00 AM 

Webinar structure

This 2-part webinar series prepares IMRF Authorized Agents to perform common IMRF tasks. You are unable to cancel registration from a single module, but attendance is not mandatory at both.

Together, these two 90-minute webinars cover the topics included in the former one-day workshop. Each webinar stands alone, and you can attend them in either order.