what smaller balance in our check- ing account at month’s end than there used to be.” In Georgetown, Texas, Paul J.
Blom, 72, said he and his wife Marie have lost just about 20 percent over a three-year period (2010 to 2012). Blom served 16 years as bishop of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod before retiring in 2007. Te result has been at least a
delay in their plans for retirement. “We had hoped to do some travel- ing,” he said. “Tat has gone by the boards because we don’t have the resources. For our day-to-day living expenses, we’ve handled it well.” Conversations with other ELCA
retirees who get Portico annuity payments, Blom said, generally turn to what each has had to do without because of the cuts. Blom supple-
ments his retire- ment income through consulting and Sunday sup- ply. Te Bloms also sought investment help and con- tinue to maintain some retirement funds in Portico’s plans, he said. Others haven’t fared so well.
ernment, Anderson completed seminary in her early 50s, became a chaplain at Lyngblomsten and then served Minnesota congregations as an intentional interim pastor. Bridge Account restrictions “limited my ability to manage my money,” she said, adding that her financial situa- tion “was steady downhill.” But Anderson admits that given
the economic conditions of the last decade, her situation today could be catastrophic. “I’m a Pollyanna. I see the best in everything. … Had I done something different, it might have been worse,” she said. Today, her two sons provide
Retired ELCA pastor Rober t E. Grochau says reductions in his Portico annuity payments amount to at least ‘a tithe and a half.’
some financial assistance, she said. But Anderson must guard every dollar and is grateful for the 2014 annuity increase. “A 3 percent increase is very helpful. I live on a very tight bud- get, and I don’t do a lot because I can’t afford to. It’s been a roller coaster,” she said.
Te 2014 annuity increase “is
Ramona Anderson, St. Paul, Minn., lives on less than $2,000 per month, including about $1,700 per month in Social Security benefits and $243 per month from money she invested in the Bridge Account, which she now wishes she hadn’t done. Anderson, 71, said she was hurt
by income she lost when the reduc- tions began. She retired in 2010, no longer has a car and can’t work due to health problems. Aſter waiting three years, she was fortunate to get into a St. Paul subsidized housing and care facility that charges rent based on income. Aſter a career in state gov-
very good news,” agreed Robert E. Grochau, Pacific Grove, Calif., who retired in 1995 aſter 40 years as a pastor. He has written to leaders throughout the ELCA, urging them to act in some way to make up for the reductions. Grochau said he was motivated
aſter hearing Galatians 6:10 in wor- ship, “which admonishes us to care for the needs of all people, ‘especial- ly those of the household of faith.’ ” From a theological perspective, he said the reductions in his annuity payments amounted to at least “a tithe and a half.” “One should consider the cumu-
lative effects this has as times goes on,” he added. Grochau lives in a retirement
facility, which has raised room and board costs more than $100 per month in each of the past three years. Reductions in his annu- ity payments have forced him to supplement monthly living expenses with as much as $500 from his sav- ings and investments. “I am not sure how much longer this can go on,” he said. Te ELCA Special Needs
Retirement Fund (SNRF) provides financial assistance to qualified recipients, including retired church workers and surviving spouses. Recipients must have income equal to or less than $1,925 per month for single participants, and $2,175 for married participants. In 2013, there were 46 qualified annuitants, said Mark Luis Foster, Portico’s marketing and communications director. From 2010 to 2013, the SNRF
paid nearly $1.9 million to quali- fied recipients, including a one-time payment in May 2011 of $577,000 to offset the stock market crash, he said. Learn more about tax- deductible giſts to (or assistance from) the SNRF at
www.myportico.
porticobenefits.org/aboutus (click on Special Needs Retirement Fund). Since its lowest point in February
2009, assets of the ELCA Partici- pating Annuity have grown by 30 percent through new annuitizations and market performance, Tiemann said. “On Sept. 30 the funded ratio was 109.1 percent,” a significant development, he added.
Author bio: Brooks is a freelance writer and instructor at DePaul University and Loyola University, both in Chicago.
January 2014 29
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