• General Conference Update—Wespath Outreach to Delegations
• New Investment Insights Blog: Why Climate Change Is Causing Higher Insurance Premiums and Intensifying the Housing Affordability Crisis
• System Maintenance
• Have You Signed into the Wespath Portal Lately?
• Participant Communications

General Conference Update—Wespath Outreach to Delegations

This week, Wespath is reaching out to clergy and lay leaders of General Conference delegations in each U.S. annual conference. Your delegation leaders will receive a letter from Wespath General Secretary Andy Hendren via email and/or U.S. mail. (Emails were sent September 18; letters were mailed September 20.)

We recognize that General Conference delegates will consider a multitude of petitions about matters critical to the future of our Church. Wespath has submitted legislation we believe supports long-term sustainability of the benefit programs, while adhering to our stewardship responsibility. We welcome any opportunity to share information with your conference delegation and answer their questions, particularly related to the proposed new mandatory retirement plan for clergy: Compass. Your board of pensions also may be interested in learning more about Compass.

Please contact us if you'd like a Wespath representative to meet with your delegation or your board of pensions. Wespath representatives are available for in-person or virtual (Zoom, etc.) meetings.

• Dale Jones (managing director-Church Relations): 1-800-269-2244 ext. 2715 or djones@wespath.org
• Tony Prestipino (director-Plan Sponsor Relations): 1-800-269-2244 ext. 4560 or tprestipino@wespath.org

New Investment Insights Blog: Why Climate Change Is Causing Higher Insurance Premiums and Intensifying the Housing Affordability Crisis

If you own a home in the U.S. and noticed your insurance premium has increased over the last several years, you are not alone. The national average for homeowners insurance has been rising for the last five years, with a cumulative increase of 19.1% between 2018 and 2023. In our latest Investment Insights blog post, Wespath’s Jake Barnett and Sylvia Poniecki explain why climate change is contributing to higher insurance premiums and intensifying the housing affordability crisis.

System Maintenance

The Wespath Portal, Benefits Access plan sponsor portal, Contribution Management, Wespath Institutional Investor Portal and the Comprehensive Benefit Funding Plan websites will be unavailable Saturday, September 23 from 6:00 a.m. Central Time until early afternoon. During this system outage, Wespath will perform system maintenance and update the websites. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Have You Signed into the Wespath Portal Lately?

If your account has been inactive for a while, Wespath’s security policies require that your Wespath Portal access be deactivated on September 30. You can avoid deactivation by logging into your Wespath Portal account at your earliest convenience. Need help? Contact Wespath at 1-800-851-2201.

Participant Communications

This week we are sending out postcards to approximately 19,000 participants who previously received paper quarterly statements reminding them 1) paper statements are no longer mailed; 2) that their Q3 statements should be available in Benefits Access by mid-October; and 3) to register for Benefits Access if they haven’t done so already.

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