Updated 1099-R forms sent out on February 10th
Please click here for details.
ERS OFFICES ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC
As a precautionary measure related to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, the ERS office is currently closed to the public. All in-person meetings and walk-ins are being cancelled at this time until further notice. If you need assistance, please contact ERS at (414) 286-3557.
Please be advised that the ERS’s daily operations and services are NOT interrupted, including the processing of benefit-related updates and annuity payments. Retirement Counseling Sessions and other meetings are currently being conducted by phone at this time.
Please email us at norm@cmers.com with your questions. Please be advised that responses may be delayed.
Fund Update
The City of Milwaukee Pension Fund had a return of 10.9%, net of fees, in the fourth quarter of 2020. This return outperformed the Fund’s blended benchmark by 2.6%, and helped the Fund generate a 6.6% net of fee return for the 2020 full year, which underperformed the blended benchmark by 5.9%. Certainty around the Presidential election outcome, followed quickly by better than expected vaccine news in mid-November, drove markets sharply higher to finish the year, continuing the rebound off the March lows caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Public Equity led the way with a quarterly return of 18.0%, net of fees. Also during the quarter, the Fund’s Fixed Income was up 2.3% and the Absolute Return asset class was up 5.3%, both net of fees. The Fund’s Private Equity and Real Estate allocations reported net of fee returns of 13.7% and 0.5%, respectively, in the third quarter of 2020, which is the most recent quarterly data available. The market value of the Fund on December 31, 2020 totaled approximately $5.53 billion.
1099-Rs for 2020
If you have not received your 1099R for 2020, please contact the pension office so we can mail you a new form. You will need this form for filing your income tax return for 2020. Do not wait until the last minute! Replacement forms will be issued free-of-charge through April 15, 2021. Any request for a replacement after that date will be filled only upon receipt of a $15.00 processing fee. If you receive a Duty Disability benefit from the ERS, you will not receive a 1099R, because this benefit is not taxable or reportable to the IRS.
If you are a recent retiree and you received a GPS lump-sum bonus during 2020 and elected to roll over all or part of your GPS lump sum bonus, you should have received a separate 1099R for your GPS lump sum bonus rollover. If you elected to receive all or part of the GPS lump sum bonus in cash, the payment you received in cash was included with the 1099R containing your monthly annuity payments.
If you receive multiple benefits from the ERS (e.g. your own benefit as well as a survivorship benefit from the account of your deceased spouse), you should have received a separate 1099R for each benefit you received in 2020.
The ERS staff is not allowed to give tax advice or answer specific tax questions. We cannot recommend how much you should have withheld or tell you if you need to file a tax return. Please consult the applicable IRS instructions or a tax professional.
If you would like to change your tax withholding for federal or WI taxes, you may download the tax withholding form from our website at: www.cmers.com under “Benefits” “Pension Payment Information” “Tax withholding”. If you do not have internet access, you may contact the ERS office and we will mail you the required form.
Retired members can view their current 1099R data as well as past 1099R data on our Member Self Service Site. Instructions for creating a secure login can be found on our website under “ERS Member Self Service.”