Employer Contact Responsibilities

The Wyoming Retirement System (WRS) relies heavily on a partnership with each of our participating employers to achieve sound administration of retirement benefits and to provide the best service to employees. The things we do together today will have a big impact on your employees’ financial future. Thank you for partnering with us.

WRS asks each participating employer to designate one or more contacts to WRS to enhance our partnership in providing retirement benefits to your employees. Please provide WRS Employer Relations with information on any changes to your employer contact, including their name, phone number, e-mail address and title.

As the employer contact, WRS understands retirement may not be your primary focus and we ask you to direct your employees to WRS with questions or for account-related service. Contact WRS to request printed materials such as pension handbooks, 457 plan information, and other information. We also encourage employer contacts to work with WRS Retirement Educators to schedule seminars and events for their staff.

WRS may also periodically send information for your employees, and we thank you in advance for forwarding or distributing these communications.

Accurate reporting of member information and data is of the highest importance. Inaccurate reporting can result in bad information being given to members for years and influence the member's retirement planning decisions, only to be discovered at the time of retirement. In addition, WRS relies on employers for compliance with state statute, in maintaining the plan's federal tax qualified status, in preserving the plan's financial soundness, and in maintaining fairness to all members.

WRS has an internal audit department that may test employer compliance with rules and statutes. The internal audit department will contact your agency prior to any audit. The auditor(s) may travel to your office to gather information. The auditor(s) will also provide guidance to agency personnel regarding matters of compliance as needed.

WRS intends for these interactions to be a collaborative effort to ensure that WRS’ plans are administered consistently and according to State and Federal regulation to maintain compliance and fairness to all Plan members and employers.

Along with many other duties, the internal audit department will ensure the following items are correctly and consistently carried out to protect employees’ retirement benefits:

• Verify that agencies are complying with applicable Wyoming rules and statutes;
• Ensure salaries reported meet the definitions of “salary” based on the applicable rules and statutes;
• Verify employee contributions correspond with reported salaries;
• Test compliance with Internal Revenue Code 414(h)(2) regarding Employer Pick-up Contribution regulations;
• Ensure agencies have proper documentation on file to comply with Federal Social Security Administration section 218 requirements; and 
• Test compliance with effective dates for the WRS 457 Plan.

Member employees can update their contact information, beneficiaries, and more in their Online Pension Account or by sending printed pension or 457 Plan forms directly to WRS.