Q. What impact
does the recent PERS action have on the principal in our accounts?
A. No impact on your current PERS account
balances, only on future additions to them.
Q. I am a retired PERS member and I retired too young. Now I want to go back to work for a PERS employer for a few more years. How will this affect my PERS retirement benefits?
A. First, how long have you been retired? If less than 6 months and you work for more than 1040 hours, you will have to repay your retirement benefits. If more than 6 months (even if you returned to work only 7 months after retirement), you can receive both your paycheck and your retirement check (double dip), for six months (1040 hours), then the retirement check will stop effective the first of the month after you exceed the 1040 hour limit. If you know you want to work for more than 1040 hours, ORS 238.078 allows you to immediately stop your retirement benefit, and begin contributing once again to PERS, while also accruing additional service retirement credit.
Second, how will the PERS reforms affect your retirement benefit if you return to work and then re-retire a few years later? This decision requires caution. It is possible for the second retirement to produce a benefit lower than the benefit received when you first retired. The impact of HB 2003 for example would be to stop the future growth of a member account for several years (due to the 0% earnings to be credited to Tier 1 regular accounts until such time as the deficit reserve is paid off), while if that individual had remained retired his or her annuity would be paid out using the 8% assumption.
Q. What factors should I consider in deciding whether it is better to retire now, and lose the annual Cost Of Living Adjustment, or wait until after April 1, 2004, and not lose the COLA’s?
A. The PERS Reforms in H.B. 2003 primarily relate to the deficit reserve created for current Tier 1 PERS member’s regular accounts as well as the over-crediting in 1999 as it relates to those who have recently retired. A member who retires before April 1, 2004 will have their 2% annual C.O.L.A.'s withheld for approximately 4 years (which would total 8% in lost COLA’s), or if a current member retires after April 1, 2004, that member will have lost the 8% for this year (year 2003's 8% guaranteed interest), so there will be no loss of COLA's after April 1, 2004 retirement. The idea was to recapture as much of the 8.67% over-crediting that took place in 1999 as possible. For those who continue working beyond next year, there will be no loss in current value of each members' PERS account, but there will be no annual increases due to earnings for a few years, until the deficit reserve has been eliminated.
Q. Will the
principal be at risk?
A. Since PERS is a defined benefit
program, the employer and not the employee carries all of the risk. The current PERS reform bills do not place
the PERS members' accounts at risk. The money in the accounts will continue to
be invested and interest generated will be applied to the over-crediting that
took place during the stock market bubble. (Those PERS members with Variable
accounts are different than the general PERS plan and their accounts are at
risk.)
Q. What options
will we have for 401K programs?
A. The Oregon Savings Growth Plan is an
IRC section 457 plan, which is very similar to the private sector's 401 (k)
plans. Most PERS member can make contributions in the OSGP. (Currently about
44% of PERS members are making contributions into OSGP.) The successor plan for new public sector hirees, who begin employment after
Q. Will what we
currently have in our accounts be money matched?
A. Yes, if the money match calculation
produces the highest benefit for the member.
Q. What can we
count on when we retire?
A. You can count on what is presently in
your account, plus its money match by the state (if the money match calculation
produces the highest benefit for the member), plus the 6% annual employee
contribution (which is being "picked-up" by 62% of PERS employers).
The 6% is set to be placed in a separate account for you in the future, but you
will still get it, plus any interest earned on it until the time you
retire. The bills currently either
signed into law or about to be signed, do not deduct anything from your current
account, but they do delay future interest payments or C.O.L.A.'s
until the over-funding by the PERS Board is averaged out to the amount that was
anticipated by the PERS members and employers before the over-crediting took
place.
Q. What can we
count on for retirement money?
A. You can count on what you presently
have in your accounts, plus the money match or full formula, whichever is in
your best interest, plus the 6% employee contribution, but don't count on further
interest being paid to PERS accounts, or C.O.L.A.'s
for a number of years, until the over-crediting gets averaged out to the level
it should have been if the PERS Board had not over-credited the accounts.
Q.
Will the interest that is not going to be credited to our account be
given to us at a later date?
A. No. The interest was given to you in
advance with the over-crediting that took place in the '90's. The reason for withholding the interest now is
to eliminate the deficit account that was created during the recent years of
fund losses. The over-crediting received by members accelerated the
growth of the deficit and future earnings are needed to eliminate the
deficit.
Q.
Will there definitely be interest given to us?
A. Not until the deficit account is
eliminated.
Q.
Can we choose to invest our money in another plan or take it and buy a
rental property for example instead of into the offered 401K plan?
A. PERS Funds are invested by the PERS
Board and the Oregon Investment Council.
Other than the possibility of diverting a portion of your member
contributions from the Regular Account to the Variable Annuity Account, you
have no say in how those funds are invested.
If you are investing in the Oregon Savings Growth Plan, you can choose
between 9 different investment portfolio pools that have been selected by the
PERS Board and the Oregon Investment Council.
Q.
Will the 401K plan be at risk of losing ANY of the money put into it?
A. 401(k) plans are private sector
plans.
Q.
When the employers no longer have to contribute the 6% what happens?
A. HB 2003, Section 13(1) requires the
ongoing payment of 6% from member salaries into the Transition Account.
Who
pays the 6% is a matter for collective bargaining. Currently, about 62% of PERS employers pay
the "pick up", 38% don't.
Q. Will
we have to pay that out of our salary?
A. If the employer does not pay the 6%,
then the employee does.
Q.
Does the 6% have any connection with money match?
A. In the past the 6% went into your
general PERS account and was subject to the 8% or better annual interest
rate. Thus it was all compounded
together, year after year. House Bill
2003 segregates future payments of the 6% and the interest it earns into a
separate 401(k)-style account. See
discussion above.
Q.
Some of us do not understand money match?
A. Money match is one of three retirement
calculations used by PERS in determining a member’s retirement benefit. PERS
will pay whichever of the three provides the highest benefit. Under money match a member’s account balance
is matched dollar for dollar by the employer and that total is annuitized over the expected lifespan of the member, and
the member’s beneficiary.
Under
full formula, one of the other calculation methods, your years of service and
final average salary are used as the basis for determining your benefit.
The
third option is available only to PERS members working in 1981 and earlier. It
is called Pension + Annuity, and is a combination of the other two.
Q. What
determines money match?
A. Again, PERS will calculate the possible
benefit under all three methodologies, and pay the highest of the three.
Generally, career members with large account balances will generally do best
with the money match provisions.
Q. If
a person has $100,000 in their account now and the employer is paying the 6%,
does that mean we actual have $200,000 under money match? Please explain.
A. The
6% plays no part in your question. The
6% of salary contribution was a component that helped the member get the $100,000 in your example; it does not influence what
methodology is used at retirement. You
are correct in noting that an individual with $100,000 in his or her account at
the time of retirement would actually have a retirement benefit paid based on a
total account of $200,000 due to the employer payment of the money match.
Q. A gentleman at our school retired in April
and finishing out the year. Will any of
the new legislation impact what he was promised in regards to current benefits
or future?
A: His current
benefits will not be affected. His
annual cost of living increases will be suspended for a few years.
Q.
A teacher in Tier 2 hired after 1996 asked if they will be treated the
same way as Tier 1 in regards to having no interest or Cost Of Living
Adjustments calculated towards the accounts in the next years?
A. A. The
withholding of Interest applies only to Tier 1 members, and the temporary
freezing of future COLA's applies only to Tier 1 PERS members who retire
between
Q. Will there be different treatment for
different accounts depending on years or whatever?
A. As set forth
above, the temporary freezing of future COLA's applies only to those who retire
between
Q. When will we know what we will have coming to
us upon our retirement?
A. Since the
PERS staff are overwhelmed with such requests, that
information will be available as they are able to work down the request list.
Q. Another one asked why we will not be given an
option to invest in accounts of our choice or take that 6% and invest it
outside of the system if we have no options and are at risk at losing the
future 6%.
A. HB 2003 does
not specifically tell the PERS Board how it is to administer the Transition
Account, with regard to member investment choice. The bill does direct the PERS Board to “adopt
rules and establish procedures for transition payments and accounts.” PERS staff anticipates the Board will address
the issue of member investment choice when developing those rules and
procedures.
Q. Doesn't the new way of putting it in a
401K-style Transition Account
amount to putting us in variable accounts and not offering us any
sense of security?
A. It's true
that Tier 1 members such as yourself you have no guaranteed 8% on the
Transition Account, like you have in the PERS regular account. Nevertheless,
historically the Oregon Investment Council has done well for PERS members.
Q. Districts that refuse to pay the 6% puts the
employee in a position to have to take 6% out of their current pay and lose
interest, is this correct?
A. Yes, you are
correct, but it is not different than it has been in the past. Sixty-two percent of PERS employers pay the
6% pick-up, just like in the past. The
difference is merely in where that 6% is credited. Before it was added to the PERS account,
where it compounded and received 8% per year (or better), while in the future
it will be placed in the Transition Account discussed above.
I hope the answers I have provided have been useful. The Answers set forth above are to the best
of my understanding and are intended to be general information. Before specific decisions are made regarding
one’s retirement, information should be obtained from the PERS staff.