Enrolling Employees

ALL employees are eligible to participate in WPF – both clergy and laity staff if they work at least 20+ hours a week.

  • Give Enrollment Forms to employee. If there is an agreement between the employer and employee to also have a voluntary, salary-reduction, you will need to sign the form in Section C. Fax or upload completed forms to WPF. If a new employee is already a member of WPF, please do not have him/her complete another enrollment form, just give us any updated information.  

  • The WPF Summary Plan Description is a document you should suggest to your new employees for an understanding of the Plan policies.

  • Begin Contributions. Enrollments are not processed until a contribution from the ministry is received by WPF.

  • WPF recommends contributing an amount equal to 12% of the employee’s gross salary. Salary is equal to cash salary plus housing. If the employee is provided a parsonage, the value used should be the taxable year-end amount. A portion of the employer contribution totaling 1% of the gross salary is used to purchase long-term disability and life insurance for the employee and for such other purposes as the Board of Pensions may determine. The rest is invested in the Plan account.

Other Tips

  • Remind the outgoing employee about their pension funds. They will need to keep WPF informed of contact information changes. Lay personnel can access their employee (EE) funds one year after job termination date and in five years for employer (ER) funds. They will no longer have the insurance benefits in the Plan. Clergy members may take employer-contributed (ER) funds after registering a job/credential termination date with their district office and the district administration records that date in TWCHub. This triggers a five-year waiting period before funds can be accessed. ALL participants may access their funds at the age of 62. *Also see “Employee Job Termination.”

  • When an employee leaves their job and processes a Lump Sum Distribution for the balance of their funds, which closes their account, they are committing to not returning to a job that would require a future enrollment in WPF. If they plan to seek a position in another ministry where WPF is utilized, they must leave their funds intact.

  • When adding employees to your Online Payment System account, be sure to mark the correct option for posting. ER funds are contributions paid by the ministry. (Insurance premiums are paid from these funds.) EE funds are contributions made from voluntary, salary-reduced funds of the employee. If the funds are not posted correctly, it can affect the employee’s insurance coverage.

  • All Employer (ER) and Employee (EE) contributions are due to WPF by the middle of December to have them credited to their accounts in the current year. We post the due dates on our website under “Year-End Processing.”

  • The first two-three weeks in January are blackout dates for Principal while they process year-end. Contributions to accounts and withdrawals from accounts are put on hold during that time. The Annual Statements are usually sent by the end of February. If you want your contributions to show up in the current year’s statements, those must be sent in by the middle of December.   (See “Year-End Processing on our website for exact dates.)