Changes to the Clergy Retirement Security Program (CRSP) approved by the 2012 General Conference went into effect Jan. 1, 2014. If you are a CRSP participant, you must contribute to the United Methodist Personal Investment Plan (UMPIP) to prevent a reduction in contributions to your CRSP Defined Benefit (DB) account. Both components of CRSP will be modified — the defined contribution component (DC) and the defined benefit component (DB).
Local churches were contributing 3 percent of your plan compensation to your CRSP DC account. Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, the church's contribution fell to 2 percent unless you contributed to UMPIP.
If you contribute to UMPIP, the church will match 100 percent of your contribution up to 1 percent of your plan compensation, and deposit those funds into your CRSP DC account. In other words, if you contribute at least 1 percent of your plan compensation to UMPIP, the church's contribution to your CRSP DC account will be 3 percent, unchanged from prior years.
Wespath (formally the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits) has released a fact sheet about the matching contribution that began Jan. 1 for the Clergy Retirement Security Program Defined Contribution plan.
Fliers are available to help clergy begin or increase United Methodist Personal Investment Plan (UMPIP) contributions:
Wespath has prepared a brief video to help explain CRSP changes and the importance of clergy contributing to UMPIP. The video is available for online viewing.
Information about the pension benefits for the Great Plains Conference may be found in Section 5 of the adopted Plan of Organization.
If you would like to set up an EFT for payment of pension and health obligations, use the forms below:
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