Category: COVID-19

The answer to this question is very important to consider when making decisions about how to establish, administer and even improve a LOSAP.  Who’s it for? Clearly, the LOSAP is for the volunteers—to financially reward them for their service to the community. But it is also for that very community, as LOSAP is a frequent tool…

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A question came in about the following: A firefighter earned 50 points during the time he was an active member, but resigned before the end of the year. Should he be eligible to earn service credit and therefore a benefit? Before we address our opinion on this question, we need to be clear that this…

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In the last post we projected what a $1,200 contribution would grow to at age 65 and at age 60 using various interest rates and various ages at the time the contribution was earned. Using that projected value, we then determined how many years a $20 distribution could be paid from that amount. For many…

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In the last post, we settled on 4.5% as an assumed rate of return when projecting the DC account balances. However I decided it was just as easy to perform the calculations at 4.00%, 4.50% and 5.00%, therefore giving some more options. Below you will see two charts. The first chart assumes and Entitlement Age…

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In our last post we decided that we would compare the DB and DC plans at entitlement age. In order to make that comparison, we’ll need to make some assumptions about the rate of return on the program investments and how long someone will generally live to collect monthly benefits. First we’ll look at the…

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Trying to compare the DB and DC plans is exactly like the old saying of trying to compare apples to oranges. Just like fruit, part of the decision making process in selecting which type of plan is better comes down to preference and taste – not something that can be analyzed. But, the analysis is…

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We fully expect the Governor to sign the bill to increase the defined contribution (DC) amount from $700 to $1,200 into law at some point before the end of the year. For the sake of many fire districts that would like to amend the program at the upcoming commissioner election in December, we hope it…

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Bill A 7552 / S 4207-A has passed the Assembly and Senate. This bill increases the Defined Contribution service award from $700 to $1,200. Now, we wait for the Governor to sign it into law.   When the law was amended to increase the contribution from $480 to $700, the Governor had not signed the bill into…

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We are tracking two bills that are being considered during the final days of the legislative session. The session was scheduled to end today (Wednesday 6/19) but there are indications that it may be extended to the end of the week. The first bill is A 7276 / S 5895, which would increase the maximum…

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I’m purposefully skipping to the end – to the last point system category. We’ll circle back to the other three, leaving Miscellaneous to the end since it is sort of a “catch all” category. (ix)Teaching fire prevention classes—five points maximum. An active volunteer firefighter who at the direction of his company, district or department, and…

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