A Message From ICMA-RC President and CEO Joan McCallen

January 25, 2010

Over the past year, ICMA-RC and its clients have pulled together to meet ongoing challenges brought about by the deepest and longest financial downturn in decades. The market has demonstrated its resilience, and collectively, we have as well. It is still too early to say that all of the difficulties are behind us. However, we have seen encouraging signs of improvement over the last several months that give me greater confidence that the recession is approaching an end.

In keeping with our mission of building retirement security, we remain focused on providing the best products and services for our clients. During the past year, we evaluated our current fund offerings and made appropriate changes; presented new educational resources and materials on the ICMA-RC Web site; held on-site seminars focusing on relevant topics; and arranged one-on-one conversations with our professionals in the field and on the phones. All of this has been tailored to meet the ongoing and changing needs of our plan sponsors and participants.

This year we plan to enhance our current offerings and services, and introduce additional ones to help public sector employees not just save for retirement, but build long-term retirement security. These new services, designed to further assist and better educate public employees and those nearing and in retirement, will help employees identify any savings gaps they may have and secure their income during retirement. More information on these exciting initiatives will be provided throughout the year.

We are listening. What we have heard and understand is that public sector plan sponsors and participants are looking for resources to meet their changing needs. We will accomplish this by looking beyond the current environment and helping participants maximize their replacement income, minimize the chance of outliving their savings, and make sure they are on track to reach these goals. ICMA-RC is well positioned to ensure individual public employees are participating in their retirement savings plans, increasing their savings, and utilizing services and tools to help meet their goals.

2010 promises to be an exciting year as we approach our 1,000,000th participant. This is a very significant milestone and highlights our commitment to our clients. We look forward to continuing to serve our clients and helping them build retirement security.

Sincerely,
Joan McCallen