1

We Help People Retire with Dignity

We provide 

federal civilian 

employees and 

members of 

the uniformed 

services with the 

information and 

tools to prepare 

for a secure 

retirement.
2

Our Mission

We administer 

the TSP solely 

in the interest of 

participants and 

beneficiaries.
 3

Our Vision

We achieve flawless 

operations.

We help participants 

make smart choices. 

We spend 

participant money 

wisely. 

We make the FRTIB 

a great place to 

work; and a place 

where great work 

gets done.

We create excellent 

relationships with 

TSP stakeholders.
4

Our Core Values

Participant-Focused

We are passionate about delivering services that improve financial outcomes for participants. 

We listen, respect, and carefully consider the needs of participants in all we do. 

We value the interests of participants above those of all others.

Integrity

We are trustworthy and value individual and organizational honesty, consistency, and credibility. 

We ensure the security and financial integrity of the Thrift Savings Fund. 

We operate with independence and act ethically to carry out our fiduciary responsibility.

Collaboration 

We value diversity and respect each other’s ideas and contributions. 

We encourage open, candid dialogue and foster relationships based on trust and shared objectives. 

We build partnerships to achieve greater outcomes than we could alone.
 5

Introduction

This strategic plan is a blueprint for the work that the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board 

(FRTIB) will undertake during the next five years in its administration of the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP/

Plan). The strategic plan defines our purpose and whom we serve, our ideal future state, and our 

fundamental beliefs on how we operate, make decisions, and foster our organizational culture. In 

addition, the plan outlines the strategic goals, enterprise objectives, and milestones by which we 

will address specific challenges and exploit opportunities for enhancement over the next five years. 

It establishes the framework for measuring our progress toward attaining the vision of the ideal 

state and outlines the steps we will take toward that vision over the course of the next five years. 

Furthermore, the strategic plan is the principle vehicle we use to inform our stakeholders of where we 

will concentrate our efforts and direct resources.

Our strategic plan establishes agency-level priorities and facilitates decisions we make about 

resources needed to implement our goals and objectives, including budget, time, and people. The 

strategic plan has been developed within our enterprise planning framework, which helps us to 

onboard, prioritize, implement, and report on strategic initiatives, while providing the flexibility to 

adapt to a changing environment. Our Enterprise Planning Process (EPP) improves organizational 

awareness through the continual monitoring of our performance and the identification of our 

successes and areas for improvement.
6

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) was created by the Federal Employees' 

Retirement System Act of 1986 (FERSA) to administer the Thrift Savings Plan as one element in the 

three-part retirement program for employees covered under the Federal Employee Retirement 

System (FERS). In the nearly thirty years since the TSP received the first civilian contributions, it has 

expanded to cover members of the uniformed services (largely voluntary, non-matched contributions) 

and spousal beneficiaries. It is now the largest defined contribution retirement plan with more than 

4.9 million participants and nearly $470 billion in assets under management. While the Plan’s growth 

over the past thirty years represents a tremendous success, expectations of additional growth, 

demographic changes, and the need for infrastructure and service enhancements present new 

challenges for the Agency. We are committed to identifying and addressing these challenges as well 

as recognizing and leveraging opportunities to improve TSP participants’ ability to retire with dignity.

Building Foundations and Getting Smarter: A Recap of the 2013–2017 Strategic Plan

During the years covered by the 2013–2017 Strategic Plan, we focused on strengthening our 

foundations. This effort to reinforce our foundation was focused on the following key strategic areas: 

improving information technology (IT) security, establishing an enterprise risk framework, implementing 

a robust human capital plan, and expanding our capability to make more data-driven decisions. 

With the creation of the Enterprise Information Security and Risk Management (EISRM) program, 

we acknowledged the need to improve our IT policies and security posture. While IT security is an 

ongoing and continuously evolving challenge, we laid the foundation of our response to this challenge 

by updating our EISRM policy to ensure continuing compliance with the Federal Information Security 

Management Act (FISMA) and completing the assessment and authorization of 19 information 

systems. Most importantly, we created an Information Assurance Division (IAD) within our Office 

of Technology Services. IAD focuses on establishing and maintaining the Agency’s strategy and 

programs to ensure information assets are adequately protected. This includes protection of personally 

identifiable information (PII) and sensitive financial information of our participants and beneficiaries from 

inappropriate access, use, and disclosure. 

We also recognized a need to better understand and address risks to our enterprise in a more holistic 

manner. Consequently, we created the Office of Enterprise Risk Management (OERM) as the first 

step along the maturity spectrum of understanding and addressing enterprise risks. OERM enhances 

enterprise governance by embedding risk management into Agency operations and strategic decision 

making. OERM is composed of five teams: Anti-Fraud, External Audit Coordination, Internal Audit, 

Internal Controls, and Risk Assessments. These teams represent the various disciplines in our holistic 

approach to recognizing, preventing, controlling, and responding to risks.

A key component of our prior strategic plan was tied to developing a Human Capital Plan—a 

framework for aligning and planning staff recruitment against Agency plans and budget and a guide 

for identifying the skill sets and training needed to support the business. This Human Capital Plan 

was crucial in arming the Agency with the tools needed to support the considerable growth in staff 

experienced from 2013 to 2017. Additionally, the Human Capital Plan strengthened our performance 

Our History
 7

management; introduced enterprise change management; and fostered greater employee 

development, training, and mentoring.

Finally, we improved our ability to make data-driven decisions. We enhanced our decision intelligence 

capability by completing a benchmarking of our Plan benefits and services, operational processes, and 

costs against those in the defined contribution/financial institution space; conducted a comprehensive 

impact study of our communication materials and channels; and implemented technology to better 

facilitate the examination of participant behavior. We also surveyed participants to learn more about 

their preferences and withdrawal behaviors and hired professionals who greatly strengthen our ability 

to draw information from data by analyzing, testing, and projecting.

In addition to these strategic initiatives, we also completed other notable achievements, including 

successfully gaining legislative authority for and implementing the default investment allocation to 

the age-appropriate Lifecycle (L) Fund for auto-enrolled participants, implementing the tax penalty 

changes to the Internal Revenue Code regarding public safety employees, and completely restructuring 

our recordkeeping contract (now referred to as Technology Enterprise Support Services or TESS). We 

continue to adapt to a rapidly changing environment that includes significantly higher audit activity and 

an increased focus on the mitigation of IT vulnerabilities.

We successfully executed the initiatives identified in our 2013–2017 Strategic Plan, and the lessons 

learned from many of these efforts have informed and shaped several of the strategic initiatives 

identified in the 2017–2021 Strategic Plan.
8

The Environment in Which We Operate

Legacy Information Technology Architecture

The current IT architecture dates back to our 2003 transition to the recordkeeping system OmniPlus. 

While OmniPlus is at the core of our plan administration platform, the enterprise IT architecture 

comprised multiple other applications and hardware. Since 2003, we have improved functionality and 

capacity in portions of the architecture, but we have not conducted a comprehensive overhaul of the 

IT architecture. As a result, we are now operating in an IT environment that has grown organically, is 

not integrated, and relies upon end-of-life software products, many of which are custom-coded and 

have duplicative functionality. These deficiencies lead to lengthy implementations of enhancements, 

constrained system integration efforts, an inability to adopt innovative technology, difficulty in 

accessing and analyzing data, and security vulnerabilities.

Our outlook: Significant challenges

Modernizing the IT architecture is a complex and necessary effort that supports our 

business mission, aligns with our strategic goals, and moves us to a future state that 

applies best practices of IT system design. We believe that a move to a Service Oriented 

Architecture (SOA), which consists of loosely coupled, highly cohesive modular software 

components wrapped in Application Program Interfaces (APIs), will eliminate our 

key deficiencies and allow us to take advantage of innovative software products and 

technologies. In addition, it will facilitate the addition and removal of commercial or 

custom applications with no or limited impact on other components of the architecture 

and will greatly improve our data access. Thus, we will be able to more quickly respond 

to environmental and service changes and adopt best practices in plan administration. 

Most importantly, a new IT architecture provides an improved guard against cybersecurity 

threats, which will be discussed in more detail in the following section. We do recognize 

that this effort is a massive undertaking and will consume the bulk of our IT resources, 

thus limiting our ability to implement other IT-dependent initiatives. Furthermore, the 

implementation of a new IT architecture must be managed in an organized manner to 

reduce the risk to our business systems and enterprise security posture.

Cybersecurity Threats

Cybersecurity is an ongoing and continuously evolving challenge. This threat is faced by public 

and private sector organizations alike and is one that requires specialized skillsets and technologies 

to manage. Because the frequency and intensity of cyber threats are expected only to increase, 

organizations are focusing more intently on the quick identification and containment of these threats, 

sometimes with a trade-off of service delivery/availability.

Our outlook: Significant challenges

It is imperative that we continuously improve and strengthen our security posture and 

ensure that our information technology is both trustworthy and resilient. The increase 

in cyberattacks has shifted the focus and priority for how enterprises are designed, 

implemented, and operated to provide services over the Internet. The Agency’s current 

architecture must be hardened and matured in areas like access control and multifactor 
 9

authentication to strengthen our cyber posture. Additionally, cybersecurity must be 

embedded as a core element of our business processes and reflect the best practices 

of industry and government. Our commitment to a secure environment will require the 

appropriate mix of people, policy, and technology and, across the next several years, will 

require a revamped architecture. In the near term, this commitment will place constraints 

on our ability to implement new initiatives and will potentially impact daily operations (e.g., 

result in extended outages). However, this emphasis will not only result in enhanced security 

but will ensure new services and features reside in a more secure environment. 

Legislative Landscape

While the priorities of the next administration are not yet known, it is likely that federal budgetary 

pressures will continue. Downward pressure on the federal budget has frequently translated 

into pressure on federal employee pay and benefits. Some of these changes could impact TSP 

participants and the Plan.

The National Defense Authorization Act that passed in late 2015 authorized the new Uniformed 

Services Blended Retirement System (BRS), which will make the TSP a more significant component 

of the retirement plans of many uniformed services members. We are mandated to have this new 

system, which requires automatic enrollment of new service members and includes matching and 

automatic service contributions, in place on January 1, 2018.

Our outlook: Cautious optimism 

BRS represents a major opportunity to increase retirement benefits for members of the 

uniformed services. Participation rates for active duty uniformed services members have 

not exceeded 45% since they became eligible to contribute to the TSP without receiving 

matching contributions in 2001. With BRS, which will be mandatory for new members and 

optional for members with fewer than 12 years of service, increased numbers of uniformed 

services participants will result in significant growth for the Plan. Estimates of participant 

growth in the first two years of BRS have been in the range of 500,000–600,000 new 

uniformed services participants. Implementing the new system will consume significant 

resources and require us to address increased capacity needs in back-end and participantfacing technology and services.

Regulatory Oversight

Over the past two years, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has dramatically 

increased the number of Plan performance audits from 5–6 annually to 20–25 annually. While 

increased audits benefit the Plan and our participants by identifying areas for improvement, the 

FRTIB must adjust staffing levels to support the increased number of audits. 

Our Outlook: Cautious optimism

The FRTIB has added staff but needs additional support in offices absorbing the bulk of 

the audits in order to field and respond to audits and remediate findings. Additionally, 
10

it will be critical for us to coordinate with EBSA on the 

schedule and scope of audits. We will also increase our 

focus on internal controls and continuous improvement 

activities as a means of root-cause mitigation of 

potential process weaknesses.

Investment Environment

Expectations in the United States for modest economic growth 

and a slight rise in inflation over the near term, along with low 

unemployment, come amidst a backdrop of slower growth and 

inflation in other developed markets and some developing 

economies. Such potential headwinds have continued to put into 

question the ability of our economy to gain momentum and have 

created uncomfortable market disruptions at times. The possibility 

of these conditions persisting and impacting both equity and 

fixed income markets could lead to uncertainty for participants. 

Our outlook: Cautious optimism 

Historically, our participants have been resilient in down 

markets. Even dips in participation and contribution deferral 

rates during the 2008 recession were reversed quickly. The 

inertia of our growing automatically enrolled population 

decreases the likelihood of participants overreacting to shifting economic winds, but a slower 

economy and more volatile markets may challenge some participants at the end of their 

careers and cause them to reconsider their retirement plans or their withdrawal decisions.

Defined Contribution Industry

The DOL fee disclosure rule continues to reshape the focus of the defined contribution industry as plan 

sponsors and participants pay greater attention to fees. Additionally, there has been a marked shift in 

focus from balance accumulation to improved retirement outcomes and readiness. The emphasis on 

retirement readiness reflects concerns about participants being able to retire with sufficient savings, 

understanding the implications of longevity risk, and converting account balances into retirement income.

Our Outlook: Favorable

The TSP has been able to consistently provide a low-cost defined contribution plan. While 

we have communicated this advantage over the years, awareness of plan fees has seeped 

into the general market consciousness and conversation. This awareness favors the TSP 

as the low-cost option for consolidating retirement assets and retaining these assets after 

separation from service. As we consider the pros and cons of providing services to assist 

participants in retaining and consolidating qualified balances in the TSP, as well as offering 

retirement-focused financial advice, we must carefully consider the implications of the new 

DOL fiduciary rules on the TSP and our service providers. 

While it is readily 

evident that efforts 

to address the legacy 

IT architecture and 

cybersecurity threats 

will have a significant 

drain on information 

technology resources, 

it must also be noted 

that the heightened 

audit activity is 

frequently focused 

on IT functions, 

thus representing 

additional pull on the 

same resources...
 11

Responding to the Environment

We examined our environment, both internal and external, and harnessed the insights and outputs 

from the 2013–2017 Strategic Plan. This led to the development of four key goals for the 2017–2021 

Strategic Plan: 

• Goal A – Implement a physical and technology infrastructure that optimizes and supports plan 

administration, agency operations, and the evolution of a new participant experience 

• Goal B – Ensure that the FRTIB has the right skills, competencies, and leadership at all levels

• Goal C – Optimize business processes to allow continuous improvement of TSP and Agency 

operations

• Goal D – Develop a new participant experience that enables participants to identify and 

achieve their targeted retirement outcomes

Within each of these strategic goals are more specific objectives that define how we will achieve the 

goal and milestones that will measure our progress toward achieving our objectives.

The strategic goals for 2017 through 2021 have been developed to address four key areas: 

infrastructure, people, processes, and participants. While we will pursue objectives and initiatives 

in all goal areas over the course of the five year strategic period, we will concentrate efforts on new 

information technology (IT) architecture, the Blended Retirement System, and audit remediation 

during the early part of this strategic cycle, before turning to the other initiatives. The prioritization of 

strategic initiatives will be addressed later in this plan. The following pages outline the four strategic 

goals and enterprise objectives, along with associated milestones.

Strategic Goal Focus over

the Next Five Years
12

Goal A | Implement a physical and technology infrastructure that 

optimizes and supports plan administration, agency operations, and the 

evolution of a new participant experience

Enterprise Objectives 

A1. Build and operate a highly scalable, integrated, available, compliant, adaptable, and 

increasingly secure IT environment

Milestones

A1.1. Define and approve the IT Target Architecture 

A1.2. Implement and operationalize the IT Target Architecture, which includes application 

portfolio modernization

A1.3. Implement and operationalize policies and technology that strengthen our 

cybersecurity posture

A1.4. Define and implement a rigorous set of IT asset management controls 

A1.5. Define and maintain IT internal controls that enhance risk mitigation

A1.6. Assess and report on key IT internal controls

A2. Provide a physical work environment that is safe, secure, adaptable, and resilient

Milestones

A2.1. Validate Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and establish a two-year cycle for updates to BIA

A2.2. Establish a fully operational Continuity of Operations Plan 

A2.3. Develop and implement an enterprise space management plan
 13

Goal B | Ensure that the FRTIB has the right skills, competencies, and 

leadership at all levels 

Enterprise Objectives 

B1. Identify the skills and talent needed to support a new participant experience

Milestones 

B1.1. Complete skills assessment to include identifying new skill requirements, current 

competencies and proficiency levels, and skill needs for our workforce 

B1.2. Implement strategies to address findings from the skills assessment

B2. Understand and strengthen individual and enterprise capacity to meet mission needs

Milestones 

B2.1. Establish a framework to delegate decision-making authority to the appropriate 

employee level, in order to alleviate bottlenecks with single points of authority

B2.2. Implement a resource management system that can identify, allocate, and forecast 

resources for plan administration, agency operations, and project and program teams

B3. Establish a strong organizational culture that exemplifies our core values

Milestones 

B3.1. Embed clear expectations for executives, managers, and staff regarding core values as 

part of performance plans 

B3.2. Establish a methodology to measure the extent to which we operate according to our 

core values
14

Goal C | Optimize business processes to allow continuous 

improvement of TSP and Agency operations 

Enterprise Objectives 

C1. Ensure that existing business processes are properly documented and repeatable and have 

clear ownership and accountability

Milestones 

C1.1. Verify ownership and accountability for business processes

C1.2. Develop a risk-based methodology to more holistically evaluate audit findings

C1.3. Assess and monitor internal controls for key business processes 

C1.4. Synchronize key business processes with existing policies, procedures, the business 

continuity plan, and internal controls and establish their central and readily 

available location

C2. Produce high-quality data on business process performance and make it available to those 

who need it, when they need it, in support of decision-making

Milestones 

C2.1. Identify business processes that require performance metrics

C2.2. Establish baseline performance metrics for business processes where needed 

C2.3. Identify key data needs of decision makers

C2.4. Create dashboard of current and historical performance metrics and baselines

C3. Evaluate and reengineer business processes and associated performance standards 

for opportunities to improve efficiency, increase scalability, and facilitate 

straight-through processing

Milestones 

C3.1. Launch Service Review Committee to ensure an enterprise view of business process 

performance, challenges, and opportunities
 15

C3.2. Analyze and prioritize gaps and redundancies in key business processes 

C3.3. Reengineer 100% of prioritized gaps in key business processes

C3.4. Establish multiple asset managers and direct custodial bank relationships

C3.5. Implement a fully integrated financial and procurement systems solution that will also 

support project accounting, business intelligence, and activity-based costing integration
16

Goal D | Develop a new participant experience that enables 

participants to identify and achieve their targeted retirement outcomes

Enterprise Objectives 

D1. Educate and proactively engage participants via their preferred communication channels so 

they can make smart choices about their TSP accounts

Milestones 

D1.1. Identify critical touch points in a participant’s life that represent opportunities for the 

participant to make important TSP decisions

D1.2. Make the policy decision on offering "advice" to participants 

D1.3. Begin collecting key participant demographic data, such as salary, deferral rate and 

gender data, that will facilitate individualized communications

D1.4. Implement outbound and individualized communications based on life events

D2. Formulate and implement plan design improvements that increase the likelihood that 

participants do not outlive their TSP assets

Milestones 

D2.1. Implement additional withdrawal options to accommodate post-retirement needs

D2.2. Implement capability to invest and withdraw Roth and traditional balances separately 

to facilitate participant tax advantages

D2.3. Launch additional Lifecycle (L) Funds in five-year intervals, e.g., 2025, 2030, 2035, etc. 

to allow participants to more closely align their L Fund investment decisions with their 

future withdrawal plans 

D2.4. Launch Mutual Fund Window to increase investment flexibility

D2.5. Implement changes on participant annual statements to inform participants on the 

expected sufficiency of their current and projected TSP savings
 17

Executing Our Strategy

If information 

technology resources 

are needed to 

support secondary 

initiatives, the work 

will be done after the 

work on cybersecurity, 

Blended Retirement, 

audit remediation, 

and the building 

of the new IT 

infrastructure 

have largely been 

completed.

As we prepare for the transition from strategic planning to strategic execution, we have overlaid our 

strategic initiatives with critical steady-state work to identify and deconflict areas where we are competing 

for the same limited resources. To facilitate efficient implementation of key initiatives, we created 

portfolios (packets of related work) to organize both strategic efforts and related operational activities. 

While flawless operation of our steady-state environment, i.e., plan administration and agency 

operations, is always our number one priority, the prioritization of the strategic portfolios was based 

on the following criteria:

1. Risk . . . mitigation of high risk items

2. Mandated . . . required by law or statute

3. Public Commitment . . . strategic imperative

4. Industry Benchmark . . . close any gap in performance

5. Service Enhancement . . . improvements and efficiencies

This planning framework is designed to allow us the flexibility to 

periodically reprioritize or onboard initiatives as we adapt to a 

changing environment. Should any changes in our portfolios or 

prioritization occur, there will be a formal updating of the 

strategic execution plan.

It is clear that implementing the new IT architecture is not only 

critical to supporting steady-state operations but sets the 

foundation for modernizing our financial systems and providing 

enhanced participant services. Therefore, over the next three 

years, our primary focus will be on the following: 

1. Improving and hardening our cybersecurity posture

2. Meeting our legislative mandate to implement the Blended Retirement System and ensuring 

our system is prepared for the influx of 500,000–600,000 new participants

3. Architecting and building the information technology platform that will provide operational 

agility, scale, resilience, and security

4. Improving controls and audit remediation

Modernizing the financial system; ensuring that the FRTIB is a great place to work; and enhancing 

participant services, benefits, and flexibilities are initiatives that will be implemented only to the 

extent they do not require resources that are working on our high-priority initiatives. If information 

technology resources are needed to support these secondary initiatives, the work will be done after 

the work on cybersecurity, Blended Retirement, audit remediation, and the building of the new IT 
18

infrastructure have largely been completed. In addition to allowing us to focus on our priorities, 

delaying several initiatives will mean we can implement them on the new IT infrastructure, rather 

than in our current legacy environment. At the same time these strategic initiatives are being 

implemented, we must always deliver operational accuracy and availability.

It is worth emphasizing that there are initiatives and activities that will not use resources that are focused 

on our top priorities. Those initiatives and activities are being encouraged to advance but only on a 

“non-interference” basis relative to the top priorities.

The following is a brief description of each of the strategic initiatives and a “cross track” to the 

milestones identified in our strategic goals or a prioritization criterion. Note, in several instances, the 

strategic initiative may be associated with multiple goals and objectives.

Cybersecurity

A1.3. Implement and operationalize policies and technology that strengthen our cybersecurity posture

The effort to quickly identify, contain, and remediate cybersecurity threats is critical. The 

cybersecurity initiative represents a continuous uplift to our security posture, embeds 

cybersecurity into all Agency activities, and helps remediate a significant portion of related 

audit findings. With this initiative, we want to ensure that our IT infrastructure is both 

trustworthy and resilient, strengthen IT security practices and capabilities, establish a robust 

and comprehensive security architecture, and retain the confidence of participants and 

other key stakeholders in our IT security policies and practices.

Blended Retirement System

Legislative Mandate

This initiative implements the legislatively mandated, automatic enrollment of uniformed 

services members into the Thrift Savings Plan. As noted previously, we believe the Blended 

Retirement System will drive significant growth in our participant population, resulting in 

higher processing volumes and capacity requirements. In preparation for this growth, we 

will streamline key manual processes that may be stressed by increased volumes, address 

many systems capacity concerns, revamp the website, enhance participant support 

capabilities, revise and create education and communication for participants and service 

personnel and payroll representatives, and update the OMNI recordkeeping system and 

other appropriate applications to support the business rules for the new BRS.

Target Information Technology Architecture

A1.1. Define and approve the IT Target Architecture 

A1.2. Implement and operationalize the IT Target Architecture which includes application portfolio 

modernization

A1.4. Define and implement a rigorous set of IT asset management controls
 19

The Target Architecture Portfolio (TAP) is a compilation of requirements and projects 

needed to build a new target IT architecture. The TAP will eliminate the current legacy 

environment and deliver an information technology infrastructure that is contemporary, 

agile, scalable, and secure. The target architecture is the platform that will facilitate a new 

service model, provide integrated and secure systems, and support future growth. Benefits 

of the TAP include the following:

• Remove complexities from and/or simplify application integration 

• Efficiently and securely connect applications in the distributed environment to our 

recordkeeping platform

• Improve security, reliability, and supportability of interfaces with external systems 

• Improve data availability, accuracy, and quality across all databases 

• Improve capabilities and security of public-facing applications 

• Enable successful execution of life event detection and follow-up actions to support 

the new participant experience 

This strategy entails a massive amount of work, which will be carefully planned, governed, 

and implemented over multiple years.

Improved Controls & Audit Findings Remediation

A1.5. Define and maintain IT internal controls that enhance risk mitigation

A1.6. Assess and report on key IT internal controls

A2.1. Validate Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and establish two-year cycle for updates to BIA

A2.2. Establish a fully operational Continuity of Operations Plan 

C1.1. Verify ownership and accountability for business processes

C1.2. Develop a risk-based methodology to more holistically evaluate audit findings

C1.3. Assess and monitor internal controls for key business processes 

C1.4. Synchronize key business processes with existing policies, procedures, business continuity plan, 

and internal controls and establish their central and readily available location

C2.1. Identify business processes that require performance metrics

C2.2. Establish baseline performance metrics for business processes where needed 

C2.3. Identify key data needs of decision makers

C2.4. Create dashboard of current and historical performance metrics and baselines

C3.1 Launch Service Review Committee to ensure enterprise view of business process performance, 

challenges, and opportunities

C3.2. Analyze and prioritize gaps and redundancies in key business processes 

C3.3. Re-engineer 100% of prioritized gaps in key business processes

This initiative is structured to position the Agency to have the bandwidth to handle the 

current schedule of 20–25 annual audits without introducing unreasonable risk to agency 

administration and Plan operations, to improve and speed remediation of audit findings, 

and to ultimately reduce the level of new and repeat audit findings by identifying and 

addressing root cause issues and strengthening internal controls. 
20

Financial Systems Modernization (FSM)

C3.4. Establish multiple asset managers and direct custodial bank relationships

C3.5. Implement a fully integrated financial and procurement systems solution that will also support 

project accounting, business intelligence, and activity-based costing integration

We use numerous, disparate, legacy financial systems that limit our flexibility and ability to 

fully capture and understand data. Additionally, these systems cannot be scaled to meet 

the changing needs of our agency or to enable us to provide best-in-class service. During 

2015, we completed an assessment of our existing financial system and determined that 

it should be replaced with an integrated financial system that will not only allow for scale 

and flexibility but will also facilitate activity-based costing, streamline business operations, 

improve efficiency, create traceability of transactions through a single system, and improve 

resource planning. 

The initiative to replace our current financial system will be planned during the early part of 

the 2017-2021 strategic planning period, and the considerable efforts to cleanse our data 

will be undertaken, with the procurement and implementation of the system occurring 

towards the end of the planning period. In addition to planning the replacement of our 

financial system, we believe we can also move forward with two changes to our investment 

operations during the early years of this strategic planning period. As noted previously, our 

enterprise risk practice continues to mature, and we recognize and accept that some risks 

with a very low likelihood of occurrence represent the potential for significant consequence. 

Thus, we are compelled to take preemptive action. The potential consequences of a 

significant economic event on our investment operations drive us to pursue multiple asset 

managers and a direct relationship with a custodial bank as a risk mitigation strategy. We 

believe that this effort will have limited impact on our IT resources and can proceed on a 

non-collision basis.

Great Place to Work

A2.3. Develop and implement an enterprise space management plan

B1.1. Complete skills assessment to include identifying new skill requirements, current competencies 

and proficiency levels, and skill needs for our workforce 

B1.2. Implement strategies to address findings from skills assessment

B2.1. Establish a framework to delegate decision-making authority to the appropriate employee level, 

in order to alleviate bottlenecks with single points of authority

B2.2. Implement a resource management system that can identify, allocate, and forecast resources for 

plan administration, agency operations, and project and program teams

B3.1. Embed clear expectations for executives, managers and staff regarding core values as part of 

performance plans 

B3.2. Establish a methodology to measure the extent to which we operate according to our core values

Making the FRTIB a great place to work and a place where great work is done is the 

principal goal of this initiative. We cannot underestimate the importance of human capital 

to the long-term success of any initiative we pursue and to the Agency. Therefore, a key 

objective of this initiative is to ensure we have the right competencies and skills among our 
 21

employees and contractors to achieve our strategic goals and successfully maintain steadystate operations. This collection of initiatives will help us to assess skills needs, identify gaps, 

and develop strategies to address those gaps and ensure that our staff is ready for the 

evolution of the TSP. We will focus attention on several areas related to the development 

and support of our employees, as follows:

• Change Management Implementation 

• Performance and Recognition

• Resource Management Plan

• Workforce Development and Training 

• Work Life, Onboarding, Employee Appreciation, and Inclusion

TSP 3D: Dialogue, Delivery, and Data

D1.1. Identify critical touch points in a participant’s life that represent opportunities for the participant 

to make important TSP decisions

D1.2. Make the policy decision on offering "advice" to participants 

D1.3. Begin collecting key participant demographic data, such as salary, deferral rate and gender 

data, that will facilitate individualized communications

D1.4. Implement outbound and individualized communications based on life events

D2.1. Implement additional withdrawal options to accommodate post-retirement needs

D2.2. Implement capability to invest and withdraw Roth and traditional balances separately to 

facilitate participant tax advantages

D2.3. Launch additional Lifecycle (L) Funds in five-year intervals, e.g., 2025, 2030, 2035, etc. to allow 

participants to more closely align their L Fund investment decision with their future withdrawal plans 

D2.4. Launch Mutual Fund Window to increase investment flexibility

D2.5. Implement the Zone of Confidence on participant annual statements to inform participants on 

the expected sufficiency of their current and projected TSP savings

During the past five years, we made significant headway in laying the foundations for the 

new participant experience, which we called “Now and Later.” Now and Later was the 

starting point for defining our new service model. We have synthesized our learnings to 

focus attention on three key areas: improved dialogue with our participants, the delivery of 

expanded Plan features and services, and the improved utilization of data to facilitate FRTIB 

and participant decision making. Accordingly, we have branded our new service model TSP 

3D: Dialogue, Delivery, and Data, which will provide, among other benefits: 

• a new engagement model that will proactively support participants with their 

retirement decisions, 

• expanded options for personalization with improved tools and guidance,

• greater self-service features with robust digital communication and transaction options, 

• investment and withdrawal flexibility, and

• targeted participant engagement using the participant’s preferred 

communication channels
22

As noted earlier, the planning process has facilitated our ability to prioritize, coordinate, and adjust 

to changes in the environment. Consequently, as we respond to new information and environmental 

change, the portfolio structure and its prioritization may be altered over the five-year planning 

period. The diagram on the following page provides a high-level visual illustration of the Agency’s 

strategic focus for the 2017–2021 planning period. At all times the Agency pursues the flawless 

operation of steady state, i.e., plan administration and agency operations. The diagram also 

highlights that improving our cybersecurity posture not only stands as a critical initiative, but will be 

embedded in all Agency activities, steady state, strategic initiatives, and culture. Further, building 

the new target information technology architecture is a foundational activity, which will enable the 

implementation of several other strategic initiatives. Along with these, the implementation of the 

Blended Retirement System and the remediation of audit findings will be our primary focus for the 

next 18 to 24 months as these efforts represent the highest priority and risk. 

Portfolio Prioritization
 23

Summary

We look forward to the challenges and opportunities that the FRTIB faces over the next five years. 

We know that we will strengthen our IT infrastructure and cybersecurity posture and achieve the 

maturation of our enterprise risk management framework. Furthermore, by optimizing our business 

processes and focusing on staff skills and competencies, we will move closer to our vision of 

achieving flawless operations. 

While we are enthusiastic about the changes and initiatives that will improve our people, processes, 

and technology, we always keep our participants at the forefront. There is nothing more important 

than ensuring operational availability and excellence and the validity and security of participant PII. 

As we celebrate 30 years of achievements, we look forward to the continued evolution of the TSP. 

We believe that our transition to TSP 3D: Dialogue, Delivery, and Data will result in better service to 

our participants and improved retirement outcomes. The goals, objectives, and milestones outlined 

in this plan reflect our commitment to helping people retire with dignity.