Time to enroll in pension system

Whether you are a teaching rookie or already have a few years of classroom experience under your belt, it’s important that you make time for a few simple steps that will help you build a substantial financial future through the benefits you enjoy from membership in the Teachers’ Retirement System. The early stage of your teaching career is the time to lay a solid foundation for a secure retirement and more.

While pensions are eroding for many working families in our nation, UFT members continue to have access to an excellent defined-benefit pension plus a voluntary Tax-Deferred Annuity program. Together, these could well become your greatest asset down the line.

First-year teachers getting TRS kit

All newly appointed teachers will be getting a package in the mail by early December. It’s a welcome and enrollment kit from the TRS.

Although regularly appointed teachers are automatically members of the TRS, completing the forms in this kit will ensure:

• Family protection if you were to pass away while in active service;
• Income protection if you were to become disabled and unable to work; and, eventually,
• A financially secure retirement if you remain a career teacher.

Enrolling is easy and relatively painless. Delaying enrollment may affect these benefits for you or your beneficiaries.

Here’s what you’ll find in the kit and what you should do:

A copy of “Your Benefits in Brief,” which summarizes the provisions of TRS membership.

A TRS enrollment form. You must complete and submit the TRS enrollment form to take full advantage of the protections that go with TRS membership. You will be participating in an outstanding retirement plan with a defined-benefit pension and cost-of-living adjustment won through union political action. Also, if you become disabled or die while an in-service member of the pension system, you will have the added security of disability protection as well as a death benefit that helps safeguard your beneficiaries.

A Designation of Beneficiary form. This form tells the TRS whom you wish to receive your death benefit, which quickly grows to three years’ salary. You may change your beneficiary as your life situation changes due to marriage, divorce or children.

A Proof of Date of Birth form. This information enables the TRS to calculate your eventual pension benefit and is required for the TRS to comply with any pension loan request you make during your career.

A Previous Service form. On this form, list all public service work you performed in New York State before your DOE appointment. If you worked as a per diem substitute teacher or were a member of the Board of Education Retirement System or another New York State or New York City public pension system, you may be eligible to reinstate to an earlier membership date with the TRS and to purchase or transfer your prior credited service and funds to the TRS, which means your pension deduction could end sooner.

A TDA enrollment form. The Tax-Deferred Annuity is a voluntary, tax-favored retirement account that supplements your pension. If you are ready to participate in this additional program, be sure to file the TDA enrollment and designation of beneficiary forms. (A future column will tell you more about the TDA program.)

Make copies of all the completed forms for your personal files. Then send your completed forms, along with proof of your date of birth, to Teachers’ Retirement System, 55 Water St., New York, NY 10041.

Call the TRS at 1-888-8NYCTRS or speak to a pension consultant in your UFT borough office if you do not receive your TRS welcome kit.

Thousands of newer teachers missing out on TRS benefits

It is truly tragic when the UFT learns about a member who died unexpectedly and either never designated or failed to update his or her TRS beneficiaries. Without this information on the record, the family of the deceased member has to go through slow and uncertain legal channels to get what could have been theirs quickly and automatically.

Yet thousands of newer teachers beyond their first year may be missing out on valuable benefits and important protections such as these because they still have not enrolled in the TRS or provided the TRS with other vital information.

The TRS reports that only about 18 percent of the teachers hired since August 2005 have submitted enrollment forms and only about 33 percent have designated their beneficiaries.

Maybe you think — erroneously — that you can’t afford the pension contribution at this point in your career. In fact, if you are a regularly appointed teacher, you are automatically a member of the Teachers’ Retirement System and your pension contribution is already deducted from your paycheck.

Maybe you think you are already enrolled in the TRS because you see a payroll deduction for pension on your pay stubs. Remember that the pension deduction is set in motion automatically. Enrollment is not.

Maybe you have lost track of the welcome kit that the TRS sent you.

Whatever the reason, you are contributing to your pension but not getting your money’s worth by missing out on benefits or protections such as these:

• You may qualify for TRS pension credit for prior service, either through transferring that credit from another public retirement system in the state or city of New York or by buying it back — but only after joining the TRS and completing two years of credited service. This credit could add thousands of dollars to the value of your pension. The sooner you file your enrollment application, the sooner the TRS will be able to set up your account.
• Members who die while in service are entitled to a death benefit worth up to a maximum of three years’ salary (one year for each year of credited service) payable to their designated beneficiaries. Those beneficiaries must be named on a “Designation of Beneficiary” form provided by the TRS. If this form is not on file or has not been updated, your wishes concerning who gets the death benefit may not be carried out.
• Members who have not sent in their Proof of Date of Birth form will not be able to take advantage of borrowing from their pension account.

How do you know if you are among the “missing?” You may not know but you can easily find out.

To check what forms or information may be missing from your file, call the TRS at 1-888-8NYC-TRS and follow the prompts to speak to a TRS representative. Then, if you need to, submit a TRS enrollment form, a Designation of Beneficiary form, or any other missing information that the TRS needs for your account, such as your date of birth. (Go to www.trs.nyc.ny.us and click on Forms.)

It won’t cost you anything to provide this information — and it could save you a small fortune in benefits and protections for yourself and your loved ones.