Take care of your financial future

Whether you are a teaching rookie or have a few years of classroom experience under your belt, this is the time to lay a solid foundation for a secure retirement and more.

While pensions are eroding for many American working families, UFT members continue to have access to an excellent defined-benefit pension with a cost-of-living adjustment. Also, as in-service members of the pension system, you have the added security of disability protection and a death benefit that helps safeguard your beneficiaries.

Plus you can build a substantial nest egg through the Tax-Deferred Annuity program.

Sound like a good deal? You bet! Yet thousands of newer teachers have not signed up.

Enroll in the Teachers’ Retirement System

So take the time to join the Teachers’ Retirement System and complete its enrollment, designation of beneficiary, and previous service forms. (The system recently sent a welcome kit with these items to all new appointees.)

Enrolling won’t cost you anything — and providing these forms, plus proof of your birth date, could mean a small fortune in benefits and protections for yourself and your loved ones. For example:

• You may qualify for Teachers’ Retirement System pension credit for prior service. Transferring or buying back credit from another public retirement system in the state or city of New York could add thousands of dollars to the value of your pension or end your pension deduction sooner — but only after enrolling in the Teachers’ Retirement System and completing two years of credited service.
• Members who die while in service have a death benefit worth as much as three years’ salary (one year for each year of credited service) payable to beneficiaries named on a Teachers’ Retirement System “Designation of QPP Beneficiary Form.” Without this information on record, a deceased member’s family has to go through slow and uncertain legal channels to get what could have been theirs quickly and automatically. You may change your beneficiaries as you marry, divorce, have children, etc.
• Without your Proof of Date of Birth, the Teachers’ Retirement System can’t let you borrow from your pension account or calculate your eventual pension benefit.

Since regularly appointed teachers are automatically members of the Teachers’ Retirement System, your pension contribution is already deducted from your paycheck. Why not get your money’s worth and give the Teachers’ Retirement System the information it needs to act on your behalf?

Sign up for a Tax-Deferred Annuity

Finally, take advantage of the Tax-Deferred Annuity program, a voluntary retirement account that supplements your pension. Contributions are tax deductible and tax-deferred so, over time, they can grow substantially. You have a choice of investment options, can increase your contribution up to a legal maximum, and can change your choices easily.

Sometimes newer teachers worry that Tax-Deferred Annuity contributions will reduce their take-home pay. To some extent they will, but the cut is reduced by your tax savings. Also, financial experts say the younger you are when you begin contributing, the longer your money has to grow. Plus, you’d be following another piece of good advice: Paying yourself first.

If you are ready to participate, file the Tax-Deferred Annuity enrollment and separate designation-of-beneficiary forms.

Call 1-888-8NYCTRS or speak to a pension consultant in your UFT borough office if you did not receive your Teachers’ Retirement System welcome kit or need new forms. Make copies of all completed forms for your personal files. Then send them, with proof of your birth date, to Teachers’ Retirement System, 55 Water St., New York, NY 10041.