Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office

NOMINATOR COMMENTS

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office is a public governmental entity dedicated to upholding the highest professional standards. PBSO staff are offered retirement benefits through the Florida Retirement System and a 457(b) plan.

The investment committee is committed to ensuring that the 457 plan operates at optimal capacity by regularly reviewing fund performance, replacing underperforming funds, adopting changes to plan documents and ensuring adherence to IRS guidelines and compliance.

The agency aims for excellence in retirement planning and preparedness but has faced challenges due to the diversity of its employee base. To address these challenges, the agency has implemented new hire automatic enrollment for all full-time employees, as well as several retirement education and financial wellness campaigns.

For 2025, PBSCO will focus on enhancing educational offerings by introducing mandatory career timeline “investment and retirement training.”

Sonia Perez (left), Thomas M. Austin (middle), Ronald Letaw (right)

PLANSPONSOR: Please cite any noteworthy initiatives you have taken in the past 24 to 36 months that have produced results to improve your plan, and describe the results.

PBSO: We hold all-day in-service retirement training classes. Keynote speakers include a certified financial planner, a retirement consultant, a Florida Retirement System representative and a PBSO retirement coordinator. We also developed a retirement training book. We have successfully trained more than 250 employees and received extremely positive feedback, leading to other agencies and municipalities requesting the details of the course.

In addition, we conducted monthly lunch-and-learns and webinars—with average attendance of 40 to 50 employees—and conducted monthly on-site appointments. Our employees enjoy the convenience and amount of information available to them.

PLANSPONSOR: What challenges do you face in plan administration or participant engagement?

PBSO: It’s crucial to emphasize the need for employees to save separately from their employer-sponsored retirement plans. Many employees do not recognize the importance of financial planning until one to two years before retirement. To tackle this issue, we have implemented several strategies, including targeted mailings and training sessions. We’ve also established multiple resources for retirement guidance, encouraged the use of Lincoln and FRS financial wellness online programs, and conducted surveys to identify the information our employees most need.

This year, for our Plan Sponsor of the Year profiles, we are publishing Q&As based on the finalists’ applications and nominator comments. Responses are edited and may be paraphrased. In cases where the finalist self-nominated or, on its application, referred judges to the nomination for the answer, we have attributed those nominator answers to the plan sponsor.