By Kathryn Kretschmer-Weyland
February 9, 2004

The highly successful U.S. Conference of Mayors Deferred Compensation Program celebrated its 25th anniversary at USCM's 72nd Winter Meeting. On Thursday, January 22nd Conference Vice President Akron Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic recognized Nationwide Retirement Solutions President Duane Meek and Conference Executive Director Tom Cochran for their strong and effective leadership in making this program an outstanding example of public-private partnership. The inscription on the award read:

An Award of Excellence, Presented by America's Mayors to Nationwide Retirement Solutions and The United States Conference of Mayors, A Public Private Partnership Benefiting 4,000 Local Governments Representing more than $4 Billion in Assets, Securing the retirement for over 300,000 public employees January 2004.

Following the presentation of the Award, Nationwide's Maggie Kwasny addressed the Mayors focusing on the realities of retirement. Pointing out that most of us will not be "rich or financially independent" when retirement comes and that we are living longer, she reported that the three sources of income during retirement years are the (1) pension program of the city, (2) social security and (3) personal savings. She went on to say that with all the financial pressures on cities today, the value of city sponsored deferred compensation programs is more important than ever.