The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits is a not-for-profit administrative agency of The United Methodist Church, responsible for the general supervision and administration of the retirement, health and welfare benefit plans, programs and funds for more than 74,000 active and retired clergy and lay employees of the Church.

The General Board manages and invests over $16 billion in assets, as the largest faith-based pension fund in the U.S., and ranks among the top 100 pension plans in the country.

As a socially responsible investor, the General Board is actively involved in shareholder advocacy, proxy voting, portfolio screening and community investing. Investments are made according to values that create a healthy financial bottom line as well as positive social and environmental returns. The General Board remains the largest denominational investor in affordable housing programs for low- and moderate-income families in the nation. To date, we have allocated nearly $1 billion to affordable housing and community development investments.

You can contact the General Board a number of ways:

• By phone: 1-800-851-2201. You can browse a list of prompts to help guide you to the correct department.
• By fax: 1-847-475-5061

You can also e-mail the General Board by using our web Contact Form:

• For questions or information regarding your retirement account, please select Retirement Benefits Team.
• For questions or information regarding HealthFlex, WebMD or medical claims, please select Health Benefits Team.
• For site-related or technical questions, please select Webmaster.

Directing your question to the right department will allow us to better serve your needs.

PARK, extranet and Board of Directors users can access these sites via our Directory of General Board Web Sites, which provides the specific links.

There are two reasons you may not receive a report after entering your account information correctly.

1. The report is generated in a PDF format. If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, you will not see a report. You may download Acrobat Reader software free of charge.
2. Acrobat Reader uses a pop-up screen to generate your pension projection report. If you have blocked pop-ups to control spamming, it can interfere with getting your report. To correct this, you should allow pop-ups while visiting the General Board Web site or add the General Board to your list of trusted Web sites. For further help with pop-up issues, please see the Pop-Up Troubleshooting page.

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a Federal Law passed by Congress in 1996. One of the provisions of HIPAA is the Privacy Rule, enacted in order to protect your privacy when it comes to your "protected health information" (also called "PHI"). The HIPAA Privacy Rule went into effect on April 14, 2003. The Privacy Rule gives specific requirements and rules that health insurance organizations (including HealthFlex), health care providers and health care clearing houses must follow to protect your PHI.

Protected health information, or PHI, is any information that can identify you that is used or held by a health insurance organization or health care provider. PHI includes such information as:

• Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Birth date
• E-mail address
• Social Security number
• Admission or discharge date

PHI also includes medical data such as diagnoses and medications taken (if it identifies you). The HIPAA Privacy Rule has significantly changed how the General Board and the rest of the health care industry are allowed to deal with participants, spouses, family and others.

Congress passed the landmark Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) health benefit provisions in 1986.  The law amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Internal Revenue Code and the Public Health Service Act to provide continuation of group health coverage that otherwise might be terminated.

COBRA provides certain former employees, retirees, spouses, former spouses, and dependent children the right to temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates.  This coverage, however, is only available when coverage is lost due to certain specific events.  Group health coverage for COBRA participants is usually more expensive than health coverage for active employees, since usually the employer pays a part of the premium for active employees while COBRA participants generally pay the entire premium themselves.  It is ordinarily less expensive, though, than individual health coverage.

If you try registering and receive the message "Social Security Number already used," it's likely you've already registered as a WebMD user. Please click the "Forgot Your Username or Password?" link beneath the login and choose from the options provided to retrieve your username and/or password.

The HealthFlex annual benefit elections period runs from November 1 to November 30 every year.

Yes. The General Board administers two types of plans: Defined Contribution (DC) and Defined Benefit (DB). DC plans include the Ministerial Pension Plan (MPP), the Staff Retirement Benefit Program (SRBP), and the United Methodist Personal Investment Plan (UMPIP). DB plans include the pre-1982 plan and MPP annuities (monthly benefit payments received by retired clergy). After 2007, the General Board is introducing the Clergy Retirement Security Program (CRSP) and the Retirement Security Program (RSP), which have both DB and DC components. All DC plans are fully funded. Participants should realize, however, that the value of their accounts will fluctuate up and down with the performance of the investment markets. DB plans provide participants with a specified monthly payment. Accordingly, funded status is affected by the performance of the investment markets. The General Board is confident that the current funded status of the DB plans is sufficient to fulfill its obligations to its participants. Ultimately, the annual conferences are responsible for ensuring that these plans have been fully funded.

For a more comprehensive answer to this question, see the article on the main Web site under SRI and Fund Performance titled Q&A Regarding Recent Media Stories about Pensions and Pension Plan Funding.

The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits is a not-for-profit administrative agency of The United Methodist Church, responsible for the general supervision and administration of the retirement, health and welfare benefit plans, programs and funds for more than 66,000 clergy and lay employees of the Church.

All of the assets invested in the funds are owned by the clergy and lay. The General Board serves only as the trustee of the investment programs. The General Board is a fiduciary and is therefore required to meet stringent standards for administering, monitoring and reporting on participant balances. In addition, the General Board is responsible for the daily monitoring and oversight of both the custodian Bank and the investment managers. Daily reporting is available to us through the Bank's online reporting system.

Your account balance will change along with the daily fluctuations in the financial markets. Because markets sometimes lose value, the funds in your account may also lose value and lead to lower ending balances from one account period to the next. The General Board Investments Staff is focused on achieving sustained positive long-term investment results for participants.

Because past performance is not a predictor of future results, the General Board does not believe that selling investments or terminating fund managers based on short-term negative performance is a prudent strategy. For example, after the tragedy of September 11th when U.S. stocks saw dramatic price declines, the General Board actually increased its holdings of U.S. equities. This strategy was rewarded when the markets rebounded and stock prices rose as investors regained confidence in the months following that event.

The main impact of this change was to transfer participants' assets from a plan that protected participant balances from market fluctuations (DIF) directly into the market-based and daily-priced Multiple Asset Fund (MAF). The investment philosophy for investing MAF assets was the same as the investment philosophy and approach used for DIF. Accordingly, the General Board made no change to the underlying assets held by the General Board as a result of this transition. However, with the elimination of the reserve, the General Board transferred to participants the risk of daily fluctuation in the prices of the underlying securities. Hence, since April 2004, participants have seen their account balances increase and decrease based on the changes in the financial markets.

There were two reasons for shifting market risk from the annual conferences and other UMC-affiliated employers to participants. First, employers contributing to defined contributions plans are unwilling to accept the risk associated with a severe downturn in financial markets. As designed, there was a possibility that employers would have to make additional contributions if assets were insufficient to fulfill promises to participants. Second, the General Board could have structured a fund that substantially mitigates the risk of additional employer payments. However, the policies required to mitigate this risk would severely impact the long-term growth potential for participant account balances. The General Board would be required to retain a substantial portion of the earnings from the invested assets in order to provide a "reserve" against a severe market decline. When it discontinued DIF, the General Board fully distributed excess earnings to participants in the form of a final special distribution.

The General Board engages the services of investment managers to select investments for the General Board's plan assets. The staff of the General Board selects investment managers and carefully monitors their activities to ensure adherence to established guidelines. Staff continuously measures and analyzes investment returns compared to corresponding performance benchmarks. The General Board generally invests with a long-term investment horizon and seeks to establish lasting partnerships with its fund managers. Many of our relationships exceed ten years. A complete list of the General Board's investment managers is maintained on this Web site.

The General Board incurs costs for investment manager, bank custody, and fund administration. The table below displays three categories of fees for each fund as of 03/31/06.

A benchmark is simply a standard used for comparison purposes in evaluating the performance of the General Board's investment managers. All of the General Board's managers are assigned a benchmark by the Investment staff based on the types of securities in which the managers invest and their respective investment styles. Examples of benchmarks include popular market indices such as the S&P 500 (for U.S. large-capitalization stocks) or the Lehman U.S. Universal (for U.S. fixed income securities.) Over time the Investment staff measures each manager's actual performance against the performance of the benchmark to ascertain the quality of investment decisions that managers are making and whether the manager is adhering to his or her advertised investment style. Benchmarking is just one of the many tools that the Investment staff uses to regularly assess whether a manager should be retained or replaced.

When the General Board hires a manager, the Investment Staff selects a benchmark that best corresponds to the manager's investment strategy. The manager is expected to produce investment results that surpass the benchmark over a given market cycle, usually three to five years. The reason a manager's performance may differ from the benchmark is that the manager often chooses a portfolio of securities which differs from the composition of the benchmark. This portfolio is based upon the manager's informed interpretation of factors, such as the future economic outlook and the relative strength of the underlying securities given the manager's projected economic scenario. Over a given measurement period, to the extent that a manager's investments are different from the benchmark, the manager will typically either underperform or outperform their benchmark. The Investment Staff is constantly monitoring managers' performance. If a manager significantly underperforms his or her benchmark, the Investment Staff may decide to change managers.

The LifeStage Investment Management Service (LifeStage) allocates contributions to participant accounts among five funds: the Stable Value Fund (SVF), the Inflation Protection Fund (IPF), the Domestic Bond Fund (DBF), the Domestic Stock Fund (DSF) and the International Stock Fund (ISF). The General Board selected these funds because together they represent a diversified portfolio that effectively manages market risk.

The allocation mix is based upon each participant's personal risk tolerance, age, and estimated retirement date. After determining your target investment fund allocation, LifeStage manages your account. As you age, or as market returns cause your fund allocations to fluctuate, LifeStage adjusts your allocation accordingly.

The General Board's Web site includes a Fund Description page for each fund offered by the General Board. On each page you will find a section that details the Fund Holdings. You can read the overview provided or download a PDF of the complete Investment Funds Description that lists all holdings for the fund. The Fund Description page for each stock fund lists the top ten stock holdings. For the Domestic Bond, Stable Value Fund and Inflation Protection Funds, instead of listing the top ten holdings, each page contains a diversification chart that illustrates the classification of assets in the fund. On the Multiple Asset Fund (MAF) description page, you can view the fund's asset allocation. Since MAF is comprised of the underlying equity and fixed income funds, you can examine the holdings in each allocation on the corresponding Fund Description page.

Additionally, you can access a complete listing of holdings for each fund by clicking on the links below:

• Stable Value Fund
• Inflation Protection Fund
• Domestic Bond Fund
• Multiple Asset Fund
• BalancedSocial Values Plus Fund
• Domestic Stock Fund
• International Stock Fund

The General Board primarily administers the retirement plans for clergy and lay members of The United Methodist Church. Individual participants can contribute to their United Methodist Personal Investment Plan (UMPIP) through payroll deductions or executing rollover transactions from outside IRA accounts. In addition to plan contributions, the General Board offers to invest funds, such as endowments, for other organizations affiliated with The United Methodist Church.

Although the General Board cannot offer financial advice, we offer participants access to objective third party financial planning services from Ernst & Young LLP. Their expert financial consultants can help you determine how to invest your account. For more information, see our Financial Planning Services page.

Participants also have the option of electing the LifeStage Investment Management Service to allocate UMPIP on their behalf. To learn more about LifeStage, go to our LifeStage Investment Management Services page.

The General Board employs portfolio screening to exclude companies that derive 10% or more of their revenue from gambling or from the sale of alcohol, adult entertainment, tobacco, and weapons not sold for legitimate police and military use. For military armaments the threshold is 5%, and for nuclear weapons the threshold is 3%.

In addition to portfolio screening, the General Board engages in shareholder advocacy by talking directly with companies to address social, environmental, and governance issues of concern. The General Board writes letters to companies seeking additional disclosure of important information, meets with companies to discuss issues and opportunities for improved corporate performance, and files shareholder resolutions which are voted on by all shareholders at a company's annual meeting.

The General Board also has a significant social impact investing program that promotes the creation of additional affordable housing throughout the country, supports the development of important community facilities like rehabilitation centers, and funds microfinance investments that improve the lives of people in developing countries around the world.

The Fiduciary Committee of the Board of Directors establishes the investment policy. Whereas the Investment Department monitors adherence to investment policy, the Corporate Relations Department monitors adherence to the Social Principles of The United Methodist Church and receives policy directives from the UMC Principles Committee of the Board of Directors.

A shareholder resolution is a proposal, submitted by an owner of stock, that calls upon a company or its board of directors to take a particular action. The resolution appears in the company's proxy materials and is voted on by all shareholders at the company's annual meeting.

Almost all shareholder resolutions are advisory. A company is not obligated to implement a resolution even if it receives a majority of the shareholder vote. However, many companies do implement resolutions that receive a large percentage of the vote.

The filing of shareholder resolutions is strictly regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In general, resolutions may be filed by shareholders owning at least $2,000 in company stock for at least one year prior to the date of filing. These shares must continue to be owned through the date of the annual meeting. Other regulations, such as resolution length, what issues may be addressed, and filing deadline also apply.

Companies may challenge shareholder resolutions. If the challenge is upheld by the SEC, the resolution cannot appear on the proxy ballot.

Resolutions must receive a certain percentage of the total shareholder vote in order to be re-filed the following year. First-year resolutions must receive 3%, second-year resolutions 6%, and in subsequent years resolutions must receive 10% of the shareholder vote in order to be re-filed the next year.

The regulations pertaining to the filing of shareholder resolutions are found in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 17, Section 240.14a-8.

Companies are not bound by law to abide by shareholder resolutions, even those receiving majority votes. However, a positive shareholder vote often becomes the starting point for constructive dialogue between investors and company management and may lead to the implementation of the resolution.

A company's board of directors is not obligated to implement shareholder resolutions that receive a majority vote. However, large votes in support of a resolution often compel a corporate board to take action.

Much of the hard work of socially responsible investing takes place through corporate dialogues. More often than not, dialogues are meetings between concerned shareholders and company officials where issues are discussed and points-of-view shared, but dialogues also may take place by phone, letter, or e-mail. Dialogues are rarely one-time events, but usually a series of discussions or communications taking place over an extended period of time, sometimes years.

Dialogues and shareholder resolutions are closely connected. It is not uncommon for the filing of a shareholder resolution to be the impetus for a company to begin serious dialogue with shareholders.

Portfolio screening takes two forms. Positive portfolio screening is the identification of companies that meet certain desired characteristics and are thus singled out for purchase. Examples may include companies that produce renewable energy such as wind farms or companies involved in organic farming.

Negative portfolio screening is the identification of companies that fail to meet certain standards, or are involved in certain negative endeavors, and are therefore barred from purchase.

The General Board employs negative screening on its stock portfolio. Based on The Book of Discipline and The Book of Resolutions, the board of directors has specified that companies that derive 10% or more of their revenue from gambling or from the sale of alcohol, adult entertainment, tobacco, and weapons not sold for legitimate police and military use will be excluded from purchase. For military armaments the threshold is 5% of revenue, and for nuclear weapons the threshold is 3%.

To assist in the identification of ineligible companies, the General Board uses an independent investment research firm.

The General Board screens investments based on specific guidelines established by the board of directors. These guidelines are rooted in the Social Principles and the more detailed Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church. Through these two documents, the Church speaks on a number of contemporary social, political, and economic issues. For example, the Church's long-standing opposition to alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, and gambling can be found in the Social Principles.

The Church has instructed all church boards and agencies to "make a conscious effort to invest in institutions, companies, corporations, or funds whose practices are consistent with the goals outlined in the Social Principles..." and "to avoid investments that appear likely, directly or indirectly, to support racial discrimination, violation of human rights, sweatshop or forced labor, gambling, or the production of nuclear armaments, alcoholic beverages or tobacco, or companies dealing in pornography." (¶716, The Book of Discipline 2004.) Based on these provisions and the Church's Social Principles, the Genera Board's board of directors determines the specific guidelines around portfolio screening.

The Failed/Ineligible lists do not contain all companies ineligible for investment. It lists those companies that investment mangers have shown interest in but have been ruled ineligible after screening. It is possible for companies that are ineligible for purchase by the General Board to not appear on the Failed/Ineligible List.

The ineligible company list is comprised of companies that have failed one or more of the General Board's screening criteria. The General Board only screens those companies that our investment managers request permission to purchase. The General Board does not attempt to identify the entire universe of restricted companies that would violate our investing guidelines. It is possible that a company heavily involved in a restricted industry is not currently on our ineligible list simply because none of our investment managers has expressed an interest in holding it.

A company that fails our screening process is not approved for purchase and placed on the ineligible list. In some instances a company may be excluded from the portfolio even if it does not fail any individual screen. This generally occurs when a company is involved in more than one restricted industry, but passes each separate screen. In these cases the combined revenue from each restricted sector is considered when making a decision.

The list is generated by the continuous requests of our managers, so companies may be added at any time in the calendar year. It is reviewed annually to ascertain if any significant changes have occurred in the operations of the corporations. It is possible for a company to be removed from the ineligible list if a problematic unit is spun-off or revenue figures change dramatically.

Every publicly traded company has an annual meeting where management presents a ballot of several issues for shareholders to vote on. Shareholders who attend the annual meeting may cast their votes in person during the meeting, but most shareholders cast their votes by proxy—either electronically or by mail. A proxy vote represents a vote regarding one issue on a company ballot.

The issues typically voted on at annual meetings include the election of directors, ratification of auditors, executive compensation, and other corporate governance issues. Shareholders can also place issues on the company's ballot, called shareholder proposals. Social proposals can cover corporate governance or social issues, such as reporting on the environment or labor standards, and are usually sponsored by institutional investors like the General Board.

The General Board generally votes proxies for all of the companies in which it invests, totaling approximately 2,500 U.S. and 450 international company meetings every year. Since each ballot may contain many issues, this translates into more than 10,000 votes cast each year. Many investment funds vote automatically in favor of management proposals and against shareholder proposals. The General Board votes its proxies actively, meaning that all issues are evaluated and voted according to the Social Principles, established proxy voting guidelines, and best corporate governance practices.

Proxy voting is one important way for all shareholders to exercise their rights of ownership and to communicate their interests to company management and corporate boards of directors.