FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lexington, KY, September 24, 2024—The National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators today announced the Los Angeles Unified School District and its industry partner Voya Financial winner of the 2024 Art Caple President’s Award for Excellence. Maryland Supplemental Retirement Plans is the winner of the 2024 Members’ Choice Award. The awards were presented at NAGDCA’s 2024 Annual Conference in Phoenix. NAGDCA is the premier professional association for plan administrators and services providers of government-sponsored defined contribution retirement plans.

The 2024 NAGDCA Art Caple President’s Award was presented to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and its industry partner Voya Financial. With the 2006 launch of its 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plan, LAUSD enhanced its employees’ financial well-being and championed the participant-first mentality Mr. Caple demonstrated in his efforts to help public employees achieve financial security.

The LAUSD 457(b) plan offers participants a high-quality, low-cost retirement savings option. Since its launch, participation has grown from zero to more than 11,000 active participants and accrued plan assets exceeding $500 million. These results were accomplished by simplifying investment options, including automatic enrollment and a Roth 457(b) option, and reducing fees from more than 1% to just 0.18%. Additionally, LAUSD places a strong emphasis on financial education and wellness. Financial outreach initiatives, which include personalized messaging and educational campaigns delivered to thousands of employees, heighten financial literacy and boost retirement readiness. LAUSD’s 2024 plan survey reported an 89% satisfaction rate among participants.

“We’re thrilled to bestow the 2024 Art Caple President’s Award for Excellence—NAGDCA’s highest honor—on the Los Angeles Unified School District in recognition of its outstanding efforts to help its participants prepare for retirement,” said NAGDCA Executive Director Matt Petersen. “LAUSD’s unwavering commitment to participant outcomes, innovation, and excellence in deferred compensation administration exemplifies the spirit of strategic foresight and dedication this award recognizes, and serves as an inspiration for other public sector plans,” Matt continued.

LAUSD was selected by an Awards Committee composed of nine NAGDCA members from among 16 nominations. Projects and campaigns from NAGDCA public sector plan sponsor members are eligible for submission. LAUSD’s nomination for the 2024 Art Caple President’s Award is available here.

The 2024 NAGDCA Members’ Choice Award was given to Maryland Supplemental Retirement Plans (MSRP) for its “Catch the Match” program. The offer of a dollar-for-dollar match of up to $600 combined with targeted outreach, including webinars, email campaigns, and in-person workshops, enabled MSRP to significantly increase participation and contributions.

“Kudos to Maryland Supplemental Retirement Plans for winning this year’s Members’ Choice Award for its ‘Catch the Match’ program,” said Matt. “The Members’ Choice Award was created specifically to bring NAGDCA members’ attention to their colleagues’ best practices. ‘Catch the Match” encouraged thousands of employees to boost their retirement savings. In doing so, it earned MSRP well-deserved recognition from its peers,” Matt concluded.

Details of MSRP’s “Catch the Match” campaign are available here.

The Art Caple President’s Award, NAGDCA’s top honor, was established in 2019 to commemorate the lifework of past NAGDCA president Art Caple. Mr. Caple was a visionary and voice for those who serve others through employer-sponsored retirement plans and championed retirement programs that build financial security for state and local government employees throughout their retirement. The Award is bestowed annually on a public sector retirement plan demonstrating Mr. Caple’s participant-first perspective to building financial security for public employees.

The Members’ Choice award, created in 2021, enables NAGDCA members to select the plan they feel deserves special recognition for an outstanding project or campaign. The 2024 Leadership Recognition Award winners are eligible for the award, and all NAGDCA Annual Conference attendees have the opportunity to vote for their favorite campaign or project. The plan that receives the most votes is recognized as the annual Members’ Choice Award winner and receives complimentary annual NAGDCA membership for the following year.

ABOUT NAGDCA
NAGDCA provides education, information, and training in all aspects of public plan administration to support members in creating plans that enable secure retirement outcomes for their participants. Additionally, NAGDCA is a co-founder with the Employee Benefit Research Institute of the Public Retirement Research Lab, a retirement industry-sponsored collaborative effort. The PRRL mines data from the PRRL Database, the first-ever database specific to public sector plan- and participant-level defined contribution data, to produce research aimed at enhancing understanding of the design and utilization of public sector defined contribution retirement plans. NAGDCA also conceived National Retirement Security Week to encourage retirement saving among government workers. Through its efforts, National Retirement Security Week evolved into National Retirement Security Month, a national effort to inspire American employees to save adequately for a secure retirement that is observed throughout the retirement industry during the month of October. It has received bipartisan Senate resolution since its conception in 2006. To learn more about NAGDCA, visit https://www.nagdca.org/.

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