SB 320

Under current law, participating employees in the Wisconsin Retirement

System (WRS) may allocate 50 percent of their employee required and additional

contributions to the variable retirement investment trust of the public employee

trust fund and the remainder to the core retirement investment trust of the public

employee trust fund. By law, assets in the variable retirement investment trust are

invested almost entirely in equities, while the assets in the core retirement

investment trust must be diversified with about 55 percent of the assets currently

invested in equities. Participating employees in the WRS are not required to allocate

any of their employee required and additional contributions to the variable

retirement investment trust and may instead allocate all of these contributions to

the core retirement investment trust. This bill limits participation in the variable

annuity program to those WRS participants who elected to participate in the

variable annuity program before January 1, 2011. As a result, the variable annuity

program will be closed to new participants beginning on that date.

Because this bill relates to public employee retirement or pensions, it may be

referred to the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems for a report to be

printed as an appendix to the bill.