FA Fall Education Event

10 minutes ago

2 min read

by dara, Faculty Assembly Vice President

Just in case the reminder is useful, FACCC is the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, and their mission statement is, “To inform, educate, empower, and advocate for faculty in service to the students and the communities of California.” MiraCosta is now a Contract District, with FA Immediate Past President Mary Gross as our full-time representation on the FACCC Governing Board.

On Friday, 9/25, The FA, in conjunction with the MCCAAF (MiraCosta College Academic Associate Faculty), held a well-attended Education Luncheon. There were over 100 attendees, in person and online, and it was a useful, interactive, and informative event.

Mikala Hutchinson,the Membership and External Affairs Specialist at FACCC, brought informational materials and FACCC swag and provided an overview of who FACCC is and what they do for California Community College faculty. As a proud MCC alum, Mikala stood before a packed room and thanked the many MCC faculty and services that supported her from starting in the Adult High School Diploma program to earning her AA degree and ultimately transferring to UC San Diego where she is completing her degree in Sociology with a concentration in Law and Policy. Obviously her experience at MCC adds another dimension to her work for FACCC.

CalSTRS representative Joanna Leong, Retirement Benefits Specialist, followed Mikala with an in-depth presentation about CalSTRS. Participants learned what information is available at the MYCalSTRS website as well as a long list of items we could/should look into no matter where we are in our careers–newer, mid-career, or nearing retirement: how to estimate our pensions, looking into service credit years, assigning beneficiaries, Defined Benefit and Defined Benefit Supplemental accounts, Survivor’s Benefits, Retirement Progress Reports, benefit calculators, and available CalSTRS workshops. Joanna ran through scenarios for retirement planning, choosing beneficiaries, and survivors benefits, and even those of us who “live” on the MYCalSTRS website walked away with new information and with a small shopping list of items to look into.

After Joanna’s fantastic and useful presentation, Santiago Gonzalez, Retirement Plan Consultant from Voya Financial explained who Voya is and why they consider their company to be a great option for a 403(b) account. Voya Financial is “the official recordkeeper and third-party administrator for CalSTRS Pension2, a voluntary supplemental retirement savings program.” Although there are many companies out there to administer our 403(b) accounts, Santiago explained that Voya has lower fees than many other companies and they do not earn commissions, nor do they carry surrender charges for moving or withdrawing funds. He also highlighted some of the tax and withdrawal implications of 403(b) and 403(b) Roth accounts.

In all, we ate lunch, we re-connected with colleagues, and we learned a whole bunch! Maybe the biggest takeaway is we should be looking at where we are now in our careers and where we want to end up in retirement, and how our STRS Defined Benefit and supplemental accounts can create the secure and happy retirement we all hope to enjoy for many years.