About Us

A word from our Chief Education Officer

Dr. Jeff Wilson

For most of my career in public education, I paid no attention to retirement. After all, I had a pension – and not just any pension. I was part of CalSTRS – “the largest teachers' retirement fund in the United States.” I didn’t have to worry about my wife either as she was also a CalSTRS member. We were set, right? At least I thought so. Then, 10 years ago I received a phone call from an advisor (now a friend) that changed my life. The expensive and underperforming financial products I had earlier bought from a salesman in the teacher’s lounge – GONE. The embarrassment of not knowing what my financial future might be – behind me.

Now I have a plan. I don’t wonder about my future, rather I wonder why I waited so long to take control. I no longer purchase bad financial products from a sales person, rather I have a relationship with a planner who puts my interests before his own.

A recent Gallup shows that school employees are burning out and leaving the profession at unprecedented rates. Teachers are clearly worried about the future and there is very little administrators can do to alleviate the stress. Talking with a superintendent recently, he discussed how teachers are making retirement or resignation decisions based on very little available information about their pensions and investments. He felt one of the greatest gifts he could give to his teachers and employees would be access to sound financial advice. This superintendent recognizes that the morale and happiness of his district workforce is directly related to how his teachers feel about their individual financial well-being.

At Pension101, we recognize that school employees need more and it is our passion to provide:
  • Credible resources for personal planning for those working in the public sector;
  • Easy to use tools to model individual pension profiles based on individualized data – critical for proper retirement planning;
  • Engagement and empowerment of you, as a pension member, to provide you with current information concerning changes that will impact you;
  • Information to help you avoid poor financial products rampant in the public sector.
Pension101 will help superintendents and CBOs by providing:
  • a personalized platform for school employees to self-educate concerning the optimal time to retire or resign – helping teachers understand the cost of staying too long or not long enough;
  • resources to help employers answer basic employee questions about retirement or finance while also providing a high quality tool for teachers to dive more deeply into. This new approach will effectively eliminate district responsibility for poor information given by sales persons representing financial companies;
  • Access to specialized training around general finance and pension strategies. We recognize that CALSTRS takes no responsibility to increase financial literacy. CalSTRS mission is to simply administer pensions. If a teacher does not know the right question to ask, they will not get the right answer.

"Pension101 exists to inform and educate public employees, connecting them with tools and resources to help achieve long-term financial security. The Pension101 platform will help you ask and answer questions about retirement – even before you know what questions to ask. We are an educational platform for public employees to understand their pensions and plan for their future. Pension101 exists NOT to sell products, but to provide helpful information and resources. "