Ted Storch to Cincinnati Fire Fighters Union Local 48
January 13I'm not sure if many of you are aware of the health insurance fiasco that out pension board has created but I am attaching a flyer from retirees about how bad it has gotten. Please give it a read because it DOES concern you.
BAND TOGETHER AS POLICE OFFICERS AND FIREFIGHTERS
CONCERNING INFORMATION ABOUT OHIO POLICE & FIRE PENSION FUND
WE ALL NEED TO ACT, BOTH ACTIVES AND RETIRED!
This is important to both ACTIVE and RETIRED members of OP&F – It concerns YOUR PENSION, and HEALTH INSURANCE in retirement. IF YOU’RE CONCERNED ABOUT HAVING A PENSION, and BEING ABLE TO AFFORD HEALTH INSURANCE WHEN YOU RETIRE, THIS IS A MUST READ:
** AON, who is running the health insurance transition for OP&F has been involved in numerous lawsuits regarding fraud, non-payment, decimating pension funds. THIS IS BIGGER THAN HEALTH INSURANCE.
** AON is tied to numerous other companies that actually manage our PENSION FUND money. This is NOT just related to health insurance for the retirees, BUT ALSO could have a big impact on ACTIVE POLICE AND FIRE pensions.
THE PLAYERS
AON – Administrator of Health Insurance for OP&F Retirees
ALIGHT YSA – Administrator of stipends for retiree Health Insurance for OP&F (Alight was formed out of Aon and is now owned by the Blackstone Group)
BLACKSTONE GROUP – investment manager for real estate & private equity section of OP&F pension monies. In 2016 Blackstone was the largest single owner of real estate in the world. After the housing crash left millions of U.S. homeowners under water, Blackstone swooped in and lined its pockets from the misery of ordinary Americans through Blackstone’s subsidiary, Invitation Homes, and became the largest owner of single-family rental homes in the United States. In 2016, Blackstone’s Tony James, penned an email to John Podesta stating that the fix for pensioners living in poverty was not to strengthen Social Security, but instead to have employers and workers invest 3% of the employee’s salary into high yield and risk reducing asset classes like real estate, hedge funds, managed futures, and commodities. However, Hedge Funds underperform – Kentucky Retirement Systems invests in a Hedge Fund and got a return of 1 percent over three years, including a negative 8 percent in 2016. Hedge Funds also siphon off profits in the form of exorbitant fees. Therefore, pension funds have been abandoning hedge funds in recent years. Real Estate and managed future funds are not particularly “risk-reducing” either. All these investing strategies serve to benefit companies that deal in real estate, hedge funds, and managed futures – and no surprise – Blackstone is the world’s largest discretionary investor in hedge funds.
GABRIEL ROEDER SMITH – Health Insurance Consultant to OP&F. OP&F hired them first in January 2016, evidently to advise on health insurance solutions.
TOWNSEND GROUP – investment consultant to OP&F pension monies (Aon bought out Townsend about 9/2017). Townsend advised OP&F to invest with the Blackstone Group.
JOHN GALLAGHER, Executive Director of OP&F effective 2013. Previous Executive Director of The Chicago Policeman’s Annuity and Benefit Fund from 1980-2013. That fund gave millions to the Blackstone Group to invest.
VARIOUS ARTICLES FOUND ON GOOGLE – RESEARCH THAT OP&F CLEARLY HAS NOT DONE
2011 – Securities & Exchange Commission vs. Aon – settlement reached – Aon had to pay $14.5 million
2011 – Aon paid a $1.76 million criminal penalty to resolve a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
10/2014 – Gabriel Roeder Smith, top actuarial consultant for public pensions, is sued by Detroit Pension trustees. The pension fund is bankrupt and the suit contends that GRS misled the Detroit Pension Plan.
10/2015 – UC Student Health Insurance Plan was $57 million in debt. The claim was that Aon underquoted premiums.
10/2015 – SEC announces that 3 advisers within Blackstone Group have agreed to pay $39 million to settle charges that they failed to inform investors about benefits that the advisers obtained from accelerated monitoring fees and discounts on legal fees.
1/2016 – OP&F hires the first consultant for Health Care. They are Gabriel Roeder Smith & Company
5/2016 – Gabriel Roeder Smith Consultants have ideas for the solvency of Health care fund. Nothing in OP&F meeting minutes.
11/2016 – J. David Heller re-appointed for another term as Trustee to OP&F by Ohio Senate and House. Heller is also a real estate consultant with the Townsend Group.
2017 – Blackstone bought Alight from Aon
5/2017 – Aon’s outsourcing department was sold to private equity firm Blackstone and rebranded as Alight Solutions (the company that is managing OUR healthcare stipends)
5/2017 – First Group America Retiree Savings plan sues Aon Hewitt. Aon urged the plan to change their investments to Aon investments.
6/2017 – Article in the Chicago City Wire states Chicago Policemen’s Annuity Benefit Fund of Chicago will be broke in 2021. John Gallagher was executive director of this fund from 1980-2013.
9/2017 – Pew Charitable Trust report on State Retiree Health Care Liabilities concludes that it is more cost effective to retirement systems to offer a group plan with no stipend, rather than to offer a fixed stipend. Gabriel Roeder Smith was mentioned in the footnotes. Why didn’t GRS offer this recommendation to OP&F??
9/2017 – Dallas Police & Fire Pension Fund sues the Townsend Group after DPFPF nearly collapsed because of risky real estate investments.
9/2017 – Townsend Group is an investment consultant for OP&F. In September, 2017, Townsend was about to be acquired by AON, the company who now controls our health insurance stipend funds.
12/2017 – Safeway Inc. 401k vs. Aon Hewitt regarding Aon acting imprudently when selecting investment options.
12/2017 – Kentucky Retirement System sues Blackstone Group for failing to deliver hedge-fund returns as advertised.
12/2017 – Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for OPERS shows that GRS and AON are their advisors. Wondering why OPERS didn’t choose to use AON for their health insurance transition???
2018 – Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of Aon
1/2018 – Kentucky pension system seeks to expose industry secrets – Hedge Fund Black Boxes – “The specific investments, performance, and amount of fees are hidden from even the trustees of the pension system.”
4/2018 – Retiree fund for Arkansas teachers treads water - Gabriel Roeder Smith and Aon working together here.
5/2018 – Home Depot Retirement Plan filed an ERISA class action regarding their 401k management. Alight Financial Advisors, which also operated as Aon Hewitt Financial Advisors were allegedly charging exorbitant fees.
7/2018 – Texas Teachers drops return rate 75 basis points – Gabriel Roeder Smith, Aon, and Townsend are all mentioned in this article.
7/2018 – Aon Hewitt named in double dealing retirement plan lawsuit by Lowe’s 401k system. Aon was the financial advisor and moved Lowe’s funds into Aon’s funds.
7/2018 – Reason Foundation article reports a database of over 500 public pension plans reveals over $5 trillion in total liabilities and over $1.4 trillion in unfunded liabilities, with these plans being overseen by a few actuarial firms. Gabriel Roeder Smith is at the top of the list, overseeing plans that report more than $1.1 trillion in accrued liability and comprising nearly ¼ of the database’s total liability of over $5 trillion.
8/2018 – Foundation Resolution sues Aon over mismanagement of pension plan termination
11/2018 – Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of Aon regarding marketing material and custodial fees
THESE FIVE ENTITIES – AON, TOWNSEND GROUP, BLACKSTONE GROUP, GABRIEL ROEDER SMITH, AND ALIGHT – CONTROL A MAJOR PORTION OF OUR PENSIONS AND NOW OUR HEALTH INSURANCE FUND. ALL HAVE A DUBIOUS TRACK RECORD AND ARE ALL INTERTWINED.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
1. EMAIL JOHN GALLAGHER AND THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND ASK IF THEY ARE AWARE OF THESE LAWSUITS AND CONNECTIONS, AND DEMAND ANSWERS AND/OR THEIR RESIGNATION.
John Gallagher: jgallagher@op-f.org
William Deighton: wdeighton@op-f.org
John Wainscott: jwainscott@op-f.org
Daniel Desmond: ddesmond@op-f.org
Ed Montgomery: emontgomery@op-f.org
Jeffrey Moore: jmoore@op-f.org
Timothy Patton: tpatton@op-f.org
2. ASK GARY WOLSKE (OHIO FOP PRESIDENT) AND MIKE TAYLOR (OAPFF PRESIDENT) if the State Union Board is aware of all this and what they will do about it, and also why they did not stand up to OP&F regarding this health insurance transition.
Mike Taylor email: mtaylor@oapff.org
Gary Wolske (FOP PHONE): 614-224-5700
Gary Wolske (email contact form): http://www.fopohio.org/?zone=/unionactive/contact.cfm
3. RUN FOR THE PENSION BOARD POSITIONS AND EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE ON THE BOARD MEMBERS IN MAY 2019. Three are up for re-election this year – Deighton, Moore, and Patton. Unfortunately, all are running UNOPPOSED thus far. Ballots will be mailed in May 2019. Retirees can vote for the retired candidate of their respective branch of employment (i.e. Retired Police can only vote for the retired Police candidate, retired Fire can only vote for the retired Fire candidate). Actively working members can vote for the active Board position of their respective branch of employment. WE NEED ALL TO VOTE TO MAKE A CHANGE – BOTH ACTIVE AND RETIRED! Information to run for the Board of Trustees of OP&F can be found at this link: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/742.04v1 Petitions due first Monday in April, voting ballots will be mailed by the first week in May, and ballots are due back by the third Tuesday in May.
4. MAKE YOUR CO-WORKERS, CO-RETIREES, AND LOCAL UNION REPS AWARE OF THIS SITUATION AND ASK THEM TO DO THE SAME, AND JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP AT THE LINK BELOW TO STAY APPRISED OF ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS: https://www.facebook.com/groups/222170504931169/
FOPOHIO.ORG
Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, Inc.
January 13I'm not sure if many of you are aware of the health insurance fiasco that out pension board has created but I am attaching a flyer from retirees about how bad it has gotten. Please give it a read because it DOES concern you.
BAND TOGETHER AS POLICE OFFICERS AND FIREFIGHTERS
CONCERNING INFORMATION ABOUT OHIO POLICE & FIRE PENSION FUND
WE ALL NEED TO ACT, BOTH ACTIVES AND RETIRED!
This is important to both ACTIVE and RETIRED members of OP&F – It concerns YOUR PENSION, and HEALTH INSURANCE in retirement. IF YOU’RE CONCERNED ABOUT HAVING A PENSION, and BEING ABLE TO AFFORD HEALTH INSURANCE WHEN YOU RETIRE, THIS IS A MUST READ:
** AON, who is running the health insurance transition for OP&F has been involved in numerous lawsuits regarding fraud, non-payment, decimating pension funds. THIS IS BIGGER THAN HEALTH INSURANCE.
** AON is tied to numerous other companies that actually manage our PENSION FUND money. This is NOT just related to health insurance for the retirees, BUT ALSO could have a big impact on ACTIVE POLICE AND FIRE pensions.
THE PLAYERS
AON – Administrator of Health Insurance for OP&F Retirees
ALIGHT YSA – Administrator of stipends for retiree Health Insurance for OP&F (Alight was formed out of Aon and is now owned by the Blackstone Group)
BLACKSTONE GROUP – investment manager for real estate & private equity section of OP&F pension monies. In 2016 Blackstone was the largest single owner of real estate in the world. After the housing crash left millions of U.S. homeowners under water, Blackstone swooped in and lined its pockets from the misery of ordinary Americans through Blackstone’s subsidiary, Invitation Homes, and became the largest owner of single-family rental homes in the United States. In 2016, Blackstone’s Tony James, penned an email to John Podesta stating that the fix for pensioners living in poverty was not to strengthen Social Security, but instead to have employers and workers invest 3% of the employee’s salary into high yield and risk reducing asset classes like real estate, hedge funds, managed futures, and commodities. However, Hedge Funds underperform – Kentucky Retirement Systems invests in a Hedge Fund and got a return of 1 percent over three years, including a negative 8 percent in 2016. Hedge Funds also siphon off profits in the form of exorbitant fees. Therefore, pension funds have been abandoning hedge funds in recent years. Real Estate and managed future funds are not particularly “risk-reducing” either. All these investing strategies serve to benefit companies that deal in real estate, hedge funds, and managed futures – and no surprise – Blackstone is the world’s largest discretionary investor in hedge funds.
GABRIEL ROEDER SMITH – Health Insurance Consultant to OP&F. OP&F hired them first in January 2016, evidently to advise on health insurance solutions.
TOWNSEND GROUP – investment consultant to OP&F pension monies (Aon bought out Townsend about 9/2017). Townsend advised OP&F to invest with the Blackstone Group.
JOHN GALLAGHER, Executive Director of OP&F effective 2013. Previous Executive Director of The Chicago Policeman’s Annuity and Benefit Fund from 1980-2013. That fund gave millions to the Blackstone Group to invest.
VARIOUS ARTICLES FOUND ON GOOGLE – RESEARCH THAT OP&F CLEARLY HAS NOT DONE
2011 – Securities & Exchange Commission vs. Aon – settlement reached – Aon had to pay $14.5 million
2011 – Aon paid a $1.76 million criminal penalty to resolve a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
10/2014 – Gabriel Roeder Smith, top actuarial consultant for public pensions, is sued by Detroit Pension trustees. The pension fund is bankrupt and the suit contends that GRS misled the Detroit Pension Plan.
10/2015 – UC Student Health Insurance Plan was $57 million in debt. The claim was that Aon underquoted premiums.
10/2015 – SEC announces that 3 advisers within Blackstone Group have agreed to pay $39 million to settle charges that they failed to inform investors about benefits that the advisers obtained from accelerated monitoring fees and discounts on legal fees.
1/2016 – OP&F hires the first consultant for Health Care. They are Gabriel Roeder Smith & Company
5/2016 – Gabriel Roeder Smith Consultants have ideas for the solvency of Health care fund. Nothing in OP&F meeting minutes.
11/2016 – J. David Heller re-appointed for another term as Trustee to OP&F by Ohio Senate and House. Heller is also a real estate consultant with the Townsend Group.
2017 – Blackstone bought Alight from Aon
5/2017 – Aon’s outsourcing department was sold to private equity firm Blackstone and rebranded as Alight Solutions (the company that is managing OUR healthcare stipends)
5/2017 – First Group America Retiree Savings plan sues Aon Hewitt. Aon urged the plan to change their investments to Aon investments.
6/2017 – Article in the Chicago City Wire states Chicago Policemen’s Annuity Benefit Fund of Chicago will be broke in 2021. John Gallagher was executive director of this fund from 1980-2013.
9/2017 – Pew Charitable Trust report on State Retiree Health Care Liabilities concludes that it is more cost effective to retirement systems to offer a group plan with no stipend, rather than to offer a fixed stipend. Gabriel Roeder Smith was mentioned in the footnotes. Why didn’t GRS offer this recommendation to OP&F??
9/2017 – Dallas Police & Fire Pension Fund sues the Townsend Group after DPFPF nearly collapsed because of risky real estate investments.
9/2017 – Townsend Group is an investment consultant for OP&F. In September, 2017, Townsend was about to be acquired by AON, the company who now controls our health insurance stipend funds.
12/2017 – Safeway Inc. 401k vs. Aon Hewitt regarding Aon acting imprudently when selecting investment options.
12/2017 – Kentucky Retirement System sues Blackstone Group for failing to deliver hedge-fund returns as advertised.
12/2017 – Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for OPERS shows that GRS and AON are their advisors. Wondering why OPERS didn’t choose to use AON for their health insurance transition???
2018 – Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of Aon
1/2018 – Kentucky pension system seeks to expose industry secrets – Hedge Fund Black Boxes – “The specific investments, performance, and amount of fees are hidden from even the trustees of the pension system.”
4/2018 – Retiree fund for Arkansas teachers treads water - Gabriel Roeder Smith and Aon working together here.
5/2018 – Home Depot Retirement Plan filed an ERISA class action regarding their 401k management. Alight Financial Advisors, which also operated as Aon Hewitt Financial Advisors were allegedly charging exorbitant fees.
7/2018 – Texas Teachers drops return rate 75 basis points – Gabriel Roeder Smith, Aon, and Townsend are all mentioned in this article.
7/2018 – Aon Hewitt named in double dealing retirement plan lawsuit by Lowe’s 401k system. Aon was the financial advisor and moved Lowe’s funds into Aon’s funds.
7/2018 – Reason Foundation article reports a database of over 500 public pension plans reveals over $5 trillion in total liabilities and over $1.4 trillion in unfunded liabilities, with these plans being overseen by a few actuarial firms. Gabriel Roeder Smith is at the top of the list, overseeing plans that report more than $1.1 trillion in accrued liability and comprising nearly ¼ of the database’s total liability of over $5 trillion.
8/2018 – Foundation Resolution sues Aon over mismanagement of pension plan termination
11/2018 – Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of Aon regarding marketing material and custodial fees
THESE FIVE ENTITIES – AON, TOWNSEND GROUP, BLACKSTONE GROUP, GABRIEL ROEDER SMITH, AND ALIGHT – CONTROL A MAJOR PORTION OF OUR PENSIONS AND NOW OUR HEALTH INSURANCE FUND. ALL HAVE A DUBIOUS TRACK RECORD AND ARE ALL INTERTWINED.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
1. EMAIL JOHN GALLAGHER AND THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND ASK IF THEY ARE AWARE OF THESE LAWSUITS AND CONNECTIONS, AND DEMAND ANSWERS AND/OR THEIR RESIGNATION.
John Gallagher: jgallagher@op-f.org
William Deighton: wdeighton@op-f.org
John Wainscott: jwainscott@op-f.org
Daniel Desmond: ddesmond@op-f.org
Ed Montgomery: emontgomery@op-f.org
Jeffrey Moore: jmoore@op-f.org
Timothy Patton: tpatton@op-f.org
2. ASK GARY WOLSKE (OHIO FOP PRESIDENT) AND MIKE TAYLOR (OAPFF PRESIDENT) if the State Union Board is aware of all this and what they will do about it, and also why they did not stand up to OP&F regarding this health insurance transition.
Mike Taylor email: mtaylor@oapff.org
Gary Wolske (FOP PHONE): 614-224-5700
Gary Wolske (email contact form): http://www.fopohio.org/?zone=/unionactive/contact.cfm
3. RUN FOR THE PENSION BOARD POSITIONS AND EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE ON THE BOARD MEMBERS IN MAY 2019. Three are up for re-election this year – Deighton, Moore, and Patton. Unfortunately, all are running UNOPPOSED thus far. Ballots will be mailed in May 2019. Retirees can vote for the retired candidate of their respective branch of employment (i.e. Retired Police can only vote for the retired Police candidate, retired Fire can only vote for the retired Fire candidate). Actively working members can vote for the active Board position of their respective branch of employment. WE NEED ALL TO VOTE TO MAKE A CHANGE – BOTH ACTIVE AND RETIRED! Information to run for the Board of Trustees of OP&F can be found at this link: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/742.04v1 Petitions due first Monday in April, voting ballots will be mailed by the first week in May, and ballots are due back by the third Tuesday in May.
4. MAKE YOUR CO-WORKERS, CO-RETIREES, AND LOCAL UNION REPS AWARE OF THIS SITUATION AND ASK THEM TO DO THE SAME, AND JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP AT THE LINK BELOW TO STAY APPRISED OF ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS: https://www.facebook.com/groups/222170504931169/
FOPOHIO.ORG
Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, Inc.
From Bob Uful:
Somehow, we need to make sure the active members realize this the same board that:
1. Reduced the healthcare contributions to 5% without telling the members in advance.
2. Raised the retirement age to 52.
3. Eliminated the COLA for those under 55.
4. Changed the DROP program to detriment of members.
5. Chose a healthcare plan that virtually eliminates insurance for those who are pre-65.
6. Lost over 1 billion dollars in the pension fund last year.
7. Spent more money on travel for trustees than any other state retirement system.
8. Consistently stonewall and refuses to share information/records with members.
9. Willfully and illegally withholds public documents from members.
10. Is generally non-responsive to member inquiries regarding board actions.
11. Willfully and consistently violates open meetings act/public records laws with respect to member requests/inquiries.
12. Does not livestream or make videotape of meetings available, and illegally prevents members from doing so, thereby depriving retirees who are unable to attend the meeting the ability to be informed.
13. Consistently respond with sarcasm, anger and implicit threats when members question or disagree with board actions.
14. Have repeatedly made contradictory statements and outright lied to members on multiple occassions regarding healthcare transition.
Welcome
Recent News
Changes proposed for 2020 retiree health care
OHIO POLICE AND FIRE PENSION FUND·FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2019
The OP&F Board of Trustees announced several changes that will be discussed for the retiree health care plan in 2020. The proposed changes are based on the experience of transitioning retirees from the previous self-insured group plan that ended on Dec. 31, 2018 and feedback from members. At this time, these are only proposals that will be discussed.
Proposals for the 2020 plan year include:
OHIO POLICE AND FIRE PENSION FUND·FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2019
The OP&F Board of Trustees announced several changes that will be discussed for the retiree health care plan in 2020. The proposed changes are based on the experience of transitioning retirees from the previous self-insured group plan that ended on Dec. 31, 2018 and feedback from members. At this time, these are only proposals that will be discussed.
Proposals for the 2020 plan year include:
- Reviewing the feasibility of allowing pre-Medicare members to shop and enroll in health care plans outside the exchange managed by Aon Retiree Health Solutions. Retirees may be required to sign a waiver claiming responsibility for the choices they make;
- Potentially allowing the health care stipend to be used for member COBRA payments following retirement (primarily for those who are applying for a disability benefit).
- OP&F and Aon will continue to work on expanding PPO markets with carriers;
- Lobbying efforts will continue with the FOP and IAFF for Medicare at 55 for public safety personnel;
- OP&F trustees who represent firefighters will work with the IAFF on potential new solutions not presently in the health care market.
