Are you thinking about retiring? The Employee and Retiree Service Center (ERSC) can help you plan your retirement and ensure that your transition from employee to retiree goes smoothly. Each winter, For Your Benefit offers retirement-planning resources to help you. To begin, here are the top three actions to take to prepare for your retirement.
GET READY—Ask the Experts
ERSC retirement experts present essential information and are available to answer questions during Retirement Informational Sessions. Designed for employees who are considering retiring within the next two years, ERSC staff members discuss a retirement timeline, eligibility, benefit formulas, leave payoff, continuing health insurance into retirement, and more. Many people find that bringing a spouse or attending more than once is helpful. Once you have attended an Informational Session, you will have the tools you need to make a successful transition to retirement.
After you have made the decision to retire, you also may want to attend a Forms Workshop, where ERSC staff offer a review of the necessary retirement forms, explain how to complete them, and answer questions.
To register for an Informational Session or Forms Workshop, log in to Professional Development Online (PDO) and search for “Retirement.” See below for dates, times, and locations of upcoming events. Be sure to check the ERSC website prior to attending an event, as the information may have changed.
| ERSC Retirement Informational Sessions | ||
| Date | Time | Location |
| Monday, March 2, 2020 | 4:30–6:30 p.m. | Clarksburg High School Auditorium 22500 Wims Road Clarksburg, MD 20871 |
| Tuesday, April 14, 2020 | 4:30–6:30 p.m. | Col. Zadok Magruder High School Auditorium 5939 Muncaster Mill Road Rockville, MD 20855 |
| ERSC Retirement Forms Workshops | ||
| Date | Time | Location |
| Monday, March 16, 2020 | 4:30–6:30 p.m. | Carver Educational Services Center Auditorium 850 Hungerford Drive Rockville, MD 20850 |
| Monday, April 20, 2020 | 4:30–6:30 p.m. | Col. Zadok Magruder High School Auditorium 5939 Muncaster Mill Road Rockville, MD 20855 |
State representatives from the Maryland State Retirement Agency (MSRA) offer personal counseling sessions for members of the State core plan who are planning an imminent retirement. Counseling sessions must be scheduled online in advance by visiting the MSRA Online Appointment Scheduler.
GET SET—Obtain a Retirement Benefit Estimate
A retirement benefit estimate is a must-have tool in preparing for your retirement, as it provides more personalized, detailed information than your yearly retirement benefit statement. How you obtain a retirement benefit estimate depends on your core membership.
If you are an MCPS county core and/or supplemental plan member, predetermined benefit estimates based on your early or normal retirement date are available via PenPoint. If you choose to estimate your retirement benefit based on any other date, you can run a personalized estimate on PenPoint.
If you are a State core plan member, you should request a retirement benefit estimate from MSRA 9 to 12 months before your planned retirement date. Allow enough time to receive your estimate—current response rates are from six to eight weeks. During the spring and early summer—retirement season—the response time is as much as four months. See current wait times for receiving your MSRA estimate.
Keep in mind that any unused earned sick leave you may have at retirement will not be included in your retirement estimate. For that reason, your final benefit may be higher than indicated on your estimate. After your retirement date, your final unused earned sick leave balance is recertified and reported to MSRA. If you use sick leave in the period between submitting your retirement forms and your retirement date, the final unused earned sick leave balance may result in a recalculation of your retirement benefit.
When you retire, you will be able to choose one of several different payment options that affect both how much you will receive for your lifetime and, if you choose, how much your beneficiary will receive in the event of your death. A retirement benefit estimate can help you determine which payment option to choose by providing personalized figures based on your age and your beneficiary’s age for each option, something your annual retirement benefit statement does not provide.
Knowing this information may help you make—or confirm—some of your major retirement decisions. For example, you may be planning to choose a payment option that allows you to leave a portion of your pension benefit to a beneficiary, such as your spouse, after your death. However, you may not realize how much this option will change your monthly retirement benefit. Your retirement benefit estimate will detail every option so you can be better prepared to make retirement decisions that are best for you and your family.
Access PenPoint from the Retirement Planning web page
To get there, search for “Retirement Planning” from any MCPS
web page and select Retirement Planning from the recommended
links on the next screen. Once there, click on the log-in button under
the PenPoint logo and enter your MCPS username and password—
the same username and password you use to log in to your MCPS
Outlook email and ePaystub.
GO!—Meet Important Deadlines
Once you have received answers to your retirement questions and determined your pension payment option, you will need to consider the following important retirement deadlines:
- Three months prior to your retirement date:
- Additional service credit—Final deadline to apply for active duty military service credit or purchase additional service to increase the amount of your retirement benefit and perhaps allow you to retire at an earlier date. For details about active duty military service credit, see page 5 of Understanding Your Retirement. For more information about purchasing service, see page 6 of Understanding Your Retirement, or “Did You Spend Time Working Outside MCPS” in this issue of For Your Benefit.
- Medicare—Deadline to begin the Medicare application process if you or a covered dependent will be eligible for Medicare at the time of your retirement (see “Who is Eligible for Medicare” in this issue of For Your Benefit). Participants in MCPS retiree benefits are required to be enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B in order to maintain MCPS medical and prescription retiree benefits. If you and/or your spouse became Medicare-eligible while covered under the active employee medical plan, you and/or your spouse should have enrolled in Part A and deferred Part B. If you and/or your spouse deferred Medicare Part B until your retirement, begin the process of enrolling in Part B three months prior to your retirement date. Note: If you deferred Part B until retirement, you MUST send a copy of your Medicare card with Parts A and B to ERSC at least 60 days prior to the effective date of your Medicare coverage.
- April 1, 2020: Deadline for Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) unit members who are retiring July 1, 2020, to submit retirement forms to ERSC and be eligible for payment of 35 percent of unused earned sick leave. Submitting your retirement forms after April 1, 2020, will result in sick leave payout at 20 percent. Note: Since the Social Security Administration does not allow an individual to enroll in Medicare until three months prior to his/her retirement date, you are not expected to submit your Medicare card with Parts A and B by the April 1 deadline. For additional details on the sick leave payout, please see our MCEA sick leave payout flyer.
- One month prior to your retirement date:
- Retirement forms—Final deadline for submitting all retirement forms to ERSC. For employees who are planning to retire on July 1, 2020, all paperwork must be submitted to ERSC by May 29, 2020. Visit the ERSC Forms web page to find and download your retirement application forms or simply click on your core plan membership to access them:
Final retirement forms received between June 1 and June 30, 2020, will delay the effective date of your retirement to August 1, 2020. Please be advised: if you are a member of the State core pension plan and retire on August 1, 2020, and there is a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) effective July 1 of each year, you will not receive this COLA to your State pension benefit until July 1, 2022. The state requires that you be retired for at least one year before you are eligible for a COLA on your State core pension benefit. The one-month delay in your retirement will delay your first COLA by 11 months.
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- Leave payout forms—Deadline to complete and submit leave payout forms to ERSC, if you wish to roll over your leave payout to your 403(b) or 457(b) retirement savings plans from payments of accumulated unused earned sick or annual leave. You will find the leave payout forms listed as “Additional Related Forms” at MCPS Core Pension Plan or State Core Pension Plan.
Visit these retirement resources to learn more:
- Understanding Your Retirement walks you through the retirement process, timeline, and pension calculation formulas.
- Retiree Benefit Summary informs you of benefits options for retirees, including costs and enrollment process.
- Retirement Planning web page offers links to these and other essential resources.
An abbreviated retirement timeline is available in this issue of For Your Benefit. For a complete list of necessary actions, please visit the ERSC website.
