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The City of Milwaukee Pension Fund earned a return of 16.4%, net of fees, in 2017. This return outperformed the Fund’s blended benchmark by 0.6%. The U.S. economy continued to improve in 2017. GDP growth was positive each quarter, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1% by year end. Against this backdrop, the Fund reported positive returns for all asset classes. In addition, with the exception of private equity, all of the Fund’s assets classes outperformed their respective benchmarks in 2017. The Fund’s public equity allocation returned 24.0%, private equity returned 17.3%, fixed income returned 5.2%, and absolute return gained 5.8%, all net of fees. Over the prior twelve months ending September 2017, the ERS’ real estate portfolio had a return of 8.2%, net of fees. The market value of the Fund on December 31, 2017 totaled approximately $5.36 billion.
It has come to our attention that CMS (the authority that manages Medicare) will be issuing new Medicare cards starting in April 2018. This new card will replace the existing cards you have, and will include a new identity number called the Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI). The MBI will replace the HICN that is currently used (that looks a lot like your social security number). More information about this can be found on CMS's website at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare.html. Your benefits will not be impacted with this change.
If you received a monetary benefit from the ERS in 2017(except for Duty Disability benefits, because this benefit is neither taxable, nor reportable to the IRS), you should have received your 1099R form for 2017. If you haven’t, please contact the pension office so we can mail a new form to you. You will need this form for filing your income tax return for 2017. Do not wait until the last minute. Replacement forms for 2017 will be issued free-of-charge through April 18, 2018. Any requests for replacements received after that date and all requests for replacement forms for previous years will be filled only upon receipt of a $15.00 processing fee per form.
You are a member of the ERS, and membership has its privileges. One of those privileges is access to the portion of our website that is all about you. We call it ERS Member Self Service. Click here for more details.
Other recent news can be found on the most recent newsletter.
Other important information can be found on our Frequently Asked Questions page.
Last Update: 3/28/2018