Program HistorySince 1993, the Administration on Aging (AoA) has funded the Pension Counseling and Information Program (the Program) to help individuals understand and exercise their pension rights.

The Program is founded upon two service hallmarks:
trustworthy and personalized assistance,

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regardless of age, income or value of the pension claim; and, broad-based expertise covering all employer-sponsored pension and retirement savings plans, regardless of sponsor type (public, private) or plan type (defined benefit, defined contribution).

Since its inception as a demonstration program under the Older Americans Act, the AoA has worked to identify operational practices that contribute most significantly to counseling projects’ overall success.

This has resulted in a return on investment of more than $5 in client benefits for every federal dollar invested, as well as the Program’s permanence under the Older Americans Act.

With this funding supplement, AoA looks for continued and increased operational consistency across, and cooperation within, the network of counseling projects and its technical assistance provider.Project Goals, Objectives and ActivitiesThe Program currently funds 5 multi-state, regional pension counseling projects serving a total of 22 states at an annual operating budget per project of approximately $157,500 per project year.

A sixth regional pension counseling project grant will be competed and funded for a two-year project period at approximately $200,000 per year, under amended program guidelines requiring expanded services, and increased coordination with other regional counseling projects and the national technical assistance project.

This supplemental funding announcement will bring current grantees into alignment with the latest requirements for the AoA Pension Counseling and Information Program guidelines.

The following outline details only the amendments, as denoted by italics, to the previous programmatic guidelines (under which currently funded projects operate) that are the focus of this supplemental funding opportunity.Applicants should address in their proposals how they intend to use the supplemental funds to meet the new requirements indicated in the following italicized sections:
A.

Regional Pension Counseling and Information Services.

1. Counseling and Information Services.

a.

Quick-Call Services:
b.

Case Services:c.

Referral Services:
The purpose of a project’s referral efforts is to build and utilize a cohesive region-wide network of private and public service providers to serve clients whose needs are outside the scope of counseling and information services.

To meet this need, projects must identify or establish region-wide, low- or no-cost referral networks.

Applicants should detail their coordination with existing networks, such as the National Pension Lawyers Network, where available and appropriate.

Referral services should cover the following areas:
i.

Employee benefits litigation; ii.

Pension-related actuarial and accounting services; iii.

Drafting and filing of Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDROs);iv.

Counseling or advocacy services regarding health, disability, and other employer-sponsored welfare benefitsv.

Counseling or advocacy services regarding Social Security Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program, and other public benefit or entitlement programs;vi.

Financial education, and other retirement and estate planning services; and,vii.

Elder rights and other consumer protection matters.

2. Regional Service Delivery:
All projects must be regional, generally requiring that a proposed project must serve a minimum of two (2) or more states (see exception, 2. b.

below).

Project design must provide for equivalent access to services throughout the region served (such as through the use of a toll-free phone number, website or other no cost mechanisms).

Projects must also ensure that clients throughout the region served receive the same level and quality of services, regardless of their proximity to a physical project office.

Preference in awarding funds will be given to applicants with an evidenced capacity to deliver regional services.

3. Exclusive Subject Matter:
4. Individuals Served:
Projects must provide equivalent services and equivalent access to those services to individuals, regardless of age or income, who:a.

Reside or work in the project’s service region; or whob.

Worked or resided in the project’s service region while earning a pension, or when married to an individual earning a pension; or whoc.

Seek pension benefits that are sponsored, administered, trusteed, or are otherwise held or distributed by an entity that is or was headquartered or operated within the service region.B.

Regional Outreach Activities:
Proposed projects must establish or maintain a plan for conducting a region-wide outreach effort to (1) maximize the intake of appropriate clients; and, (2) to build and maintain successful client-referral relationships with other information and service providers throughout the region served.

Regional projects are responsible for outreach activities within their service region, while the national technical assistance project will coordinate activities at the national level.

Project outreach must include the following objectives and activities:
1. Regional Intake and Referral Network:
a.

Specialized Outreach Activities and Materials:
The following considerations should also be addressed in the proposed regional outreach plan:i.

Project websites, brochures, fliers, and other outreach-related materials must clearly establish the specialty focus on pension assistance and information; ii.

Outreach materials (and overall project efforts) and activities address the breadth subject matter covered by the counseling projects, specifically including competencies in both ERISA and non-ERISA pension systems:• A portion of each project’s outreach strategy must be specifically designed to increase the flow of clients under non-ERISA pension systems throughout the service region• Regional projects are responsible for developing fact sheets or other outreach materials covering plans or issues arising under state and local pension laws (based on client need).• Projects must utilize the national technical assistance project for developing fact sheets covering plans governed by or issues arising under federal pension laws (projects may amend these to cover regional variances or exceptions).iii.

A portion of each project’s outreach strategy must be specifically targeted to reach underserved and hard-to-reach seniors, low-income seniors, and those with limited-English proficiency.

3. Media Relations:
4. Low and no-cost access:
5. Outreach events:C.

Programmatic Consistency:
1. Staffing:
Certain staffing models maximize both the project’s ability to provide the highest levels of counseling services, as well as the project’s breadth and depth of institutional experience over time.a.

Specialized Intake and Counseling Staff:
b.

Lawyers in Key Positions:c.

Maximize Direct Access to “Live” Specialist Staff:d.

Maximize Time Commitment of Volunteers, Law Students, etc.:
e.

Staff Development:
Proposed staff development plans must include at least the following components:i.

Specialist staff in each project location attend the annual Pension Counseling Project Training Conference in Washington, D.C.

in each project year; ii.

At least two days of customized legal training and / or operational consultation and review at each project location will be delivered and/or coordinated by the national technical assistance project in each project year; iii.

Specialist staff will attend at least 6 credit hours of supplemental pension training (CLE) in each project year; and iv.

Adequate budgetary resources to cover personnel time, tuition, travel and other expenses related to the project’s staff development plan must be clearly delineated in the budget narrative.f.

Infrastructure Development:
The following elements have been identified as best practices which contribute significantly to project efficiency and effectiveness in line with Program goals and should, therefore, be allocated sufficient budget resources:i.

Pension Plan Information:
Proposals should outline their existing hardware and software environment, and detail any additional technology necessary to electronically capture - with optical character recognition – plan documents, summary plan descriptions and other governing plan instruments; and to share the electronic files with a central database (such as PensionHelp America) for redistribution to the larger pension counseling network.

ii.

Computer Monitors:
Proposals should also note whether their current computer monitors are optimized for viewing at a resolution of 1024 x 768 (or a minimum of 768 vertical pixels for widescreen or cinema displays); and whether these monitors are large enough to be viewed comfortably by project staff when set at this default resolution (this typically requires a 17” to 19” monitor – measured diagonally - at a minimum).ii.

Pension Law Reference Resources:
Proposals should outline the project’s existing pension law library and detail any additional books, periodicals, and other reference materials necessary to competently research client matters across the full breadth of the project’s regional and subject matter jurisdictions.

2. Data Collection and Reporting:
Data will be collected and reported in a manner consistent across all AoA-funded counseling projects.

AoA will identify the baseline data set to be collected, and provide a low or no-cost tool to collect and report on that data.

At a minimum the data set will include the number of clients served, client demographics, types and levels of services provided, legal issues presented, recoveries and other client outcomes, plan and sponsor types, and administrator contact information.

Projects will collect and report data from each of their multiple locations (if applicable) and on the regional project’s activities as a whole.

All projects funded under this program will submit reports to the AoA and to the national technical assistance project for consolidation and analysis.

Projects will be expected to collect and retain documents and contact information for the pension plans they identify in their casework and share this information with the national technical assistance project for redistribution to the broader pension counseling network.

Current plan, sponsor and contact information will be electronically collected and transferred to a centralized database, under the guidance of the technical assistance center.

Primary focus will be on those plans that are traditionally the most difficult for deferred vested participants to find, including:
• Defined benefit plans terminated prior to July 1, 1974; • Terminated / orphaned defined contribution plans (prior to 2009); • Other plans that have experienced a change in sponsor name or location, or operational status.Proposals should ensure that adequate budgetary resources are dedicated for personnel, hardware, software or other resources to ensure accurate and timely collection of project data.

3. Shared Learning:
Projects are expected to build on the experience of existing pension counseling projects and to share their insights regarding client casework, outreach and project operations with other pension counseling projects and the national technical assistance project.

No-cost tools such as the AoA Pension Counseling Listserv are available for this purpose.

Proposals should detail a methodology for accessing, learning from and contributing to the pension counseling program’s shared learning environment.