The Savings Banks Employees Retirement Association (“SBERA”) was formed in 1944 to provide retirement benefit plans to personnel of Mutual Savings Banks (and related organizations) in Massachusetts. SBERA’s formation was authorized by the Massachusetts Legislature in Chapter 249 of the Acts of 1943. For almost four decades SBERA operated as an independent organization and administered a multiple-employer pension plan whereby all member employers shared assets and liabilities.

In 1981, the Trustees of SBERA contracted with Savings Banks Life Insurance (“SBLI”) to have SBLI provide the systems, expertise and personnel necessary to administer the SBERA Defined Benefit Pension Plan. Over the next decade, two major innovations occurred; the unbundling of the Defined Benefit Pension Plan into single employer plans for each adopting employer and providing terminated and retired participants the option to receive their pension benefit as a “lump sum” payment.

In 1991, legislation was passed to allow any member of the Massachusetts Bankers Association to join SBERA. Throughout the 1990’s, because of changing employment patterns and the evolution of retirement benefit solutions, there was a significant increase in the number of SBERA members offering Defined Contribution 401(k) Plans to their employees.

In 1998, Northeast Retirement Services (“NRS”) replaced SBLI as the administrator of SBERA’s Plans. NRS is a for-profit corporation with a national reputation for providing customized administrative and processing solutions for retirement benefit plans, endowment programs and charitable trusts. NRS is a wholly owned subsidiary of BPAS. While SBERA is legislatively restricted to offering qualified retirement benefit plans, through our close processing partnership with NRS and BPAS, SBERA can offer ESOP’s, Stock Funds, SERP’s, FSA Accounts and Actuarial Consulting to its members.

In 2004 legislation was passed to make membership in SBERA “voluntary”, and available to any customer of a SBERA member bank. SBERA is a vibrant organization with members outside of Massachusetts and the banking industry.