Your pension is a valuable part of your compensation. Even if you don't plan to retire for a long time, understanding your retirement benefit and how it grows is important. If you are like many SERS members, you may pay a lot of attention to your SERS account when you're a new employee, when you leave state service, or when you get ready to retire. We're certainly here to help you with those important transitions in your life.
It's our job to work with your employer to provide careful stewardship for your retirement account. So if, from time-to-time, your attention is elsewhere - that's OK. We'll be ready to respond to your needs whenever you're ready. Just call 1.800.633.5461.
Perhaps the most important information for understanding your retirement benefit is to know which SERS class of service you belong to. Your class of service determines how long you have to work to be eligible to receive a pension, how old you have to be before you can retire with a full pension, and more.
We encourage you to visit SERS' online member services from time-to-time to run a retirement estimate, so you can see how your benefit is growing. And we'll send you a member statement every spring to give you a chance to double check our information and to include SERS' projections in your overall retirement planning.
Your employer will provide us with a host of information - your home address, for example - while you're still working.
The most important thing you need to do is make sure that we have up-to-date information when your life changes:
Sign up to have active member updates sent to you by e-mail
Keep your beneficiary designation current
Let us know if your retirement benefits become part of a divorce or child support order
Learn about and decide if you want to purchase any eligible service credit while you are an active, contributing member
Make sure we have a fully executed power of attorney, if appropriate