Secure Your Future

Pension clinics are an absolute must as you near retirement

May 22, 2008 4:00 PM

Check the summer pension clinic dates in the box on this page. The pension clinic is designed for members who are two or three years away from retirement. It is a mini-course on your retirement plan. While you are relaxing in the summer after another strenuous school year, you can think about securing your future.

Topics covered include:

• how to calculate an estimated QPP retirement allowance;

• the Teachers’ Retirement Systems’ investment programs;

• the TDA program;

• optional forms of retirement allowance;

• lump-sum withdrawals;

• Terminal Leave and Termination Pay;

• health insurance and Welfare Fund benefits in retirement.

No one should retire without participating in at least one Pension Clinic. Many members attend more than once. No registration is necessary.

Alliance of Retired Americans voting records

The ARA, labor’s voice for retired Americans, has announced its new Congressional Voting Record Survey. The voting record of every U.S. senator and representative on key issues affecting current and future retirees, such as prescription drugs, Medicare, Social Security, health care and pensions, is listed.

You can check your representatives’ records at ARA’s Web site, www.retiredAmericans.org.

Both New York senators, Schumer and Clinton, scored 100 percent. Of the presidential candidates, Sen. Obama also scored 100 percent while Sen. McCain scored a zero on the 10 issues evaluated. They included drug prices, Medicare costs, mortgage reform, retiree spending programs and Social Security privatization.

Missing beneficiary and date-of-birth documents

Designation of Beneficiary forms are essential for the smooth transfer of funds to the beneficiaries and dependents of TRS members who die. Lack of a form or an out-dated form will cause additional grief at a difficult time. For your loved ones’ sake, you must file a Qualified Pension Plan designation form and if you participate in the tax-deferred annuity program, a Designation of Beneficiary form for the TDA. Thousands of members have not done so. Are you one of them? Act now!

Proof of date-of-birth documentation must be on file at TRS. Without it, TRS will not be able to provide you with any benefits. You cannot even borrow money from your accounts at TRS unless it has on file a birth certificate or other acceptable proof of your birth date. It will even cause a delay in your collecting your retirement allowance if TRS does not have proof. Act now!

Investment election changes

If you are a Tier I/II member who wishes to make changes in how your Annuity Savings Accumulation Fund and Increased Take-Home Pay accounts are invested, or if you are a TDA member in any tier and wish to make changes in your investments, you must act by June 1. If you wish to participate in the new investment choices, again, you must act by June 1.

Any change will take effect July 1. Changes in how account balances are invested can be made over a three-, six-, nine- or 12-month period. Members recently received election change forms in the mail. Forms are also available from the UFT or the TRS.

Quarterly Annual Statements

These statements were distributed in May for the first quarter of 2008 (January, February, March). If you did not get your QAS, you should contact the TRS.

Late-breaking good news for retiring members

We were able to arrange for the Board of Education Health Insurance Unit to set up temporary headquarters at the Teachers’ Retirement System — 55 Water St. in lower Manhattan — on business days between June 5 and June 20 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. to hand in their retiree health insurance form (ERB). This will save members a trip to 65 Court St. in Brooklyn to hand in their ERB.

To make this process as stress free as possible, members must:

• Have a completed ERB form with them.

• Have a receipt that they handed in their retirement application.

• Retirees 65 or older should have applied at a Social Security office for Medicare Part A and B and submit the awards letter if they have not yet received the Medicare card.

• If adding a spouse/domestic partner or dependent, they must have a marriage certificate, domestic partner registration or birth certificate for children.

Members who plan to hand in their retirement applications on other days or who cannot complete the filing of the ERB at TRS must bring their ERB form and other necessary documents to the Health Insurance Unit offices at 65 Court St.

If you do not get any mail from the TRS, you should make sure that it has your current address. If you have moved or if you failed to file a TRS enrollment form, TRS may very well not have your address.

“Secure your future” is compiled and written by Mel Aaronson, Sandra March and Mona Romain, teacher-members of the NYC Teachers’ Retirement Board. For further information on items discussed, call your UFT borough office or the TRS. BRONX: 1-718-379-6200; BROOKLYN: 1-718-852-4900; MANHATTAN: 1-212-598-6800; QUEENS: 1-718-275-4400; STATEN ISLAND: 1-718-605-1400; Teachers’ Retirement System: 1-888-8NYC-TRS (692-877), www.trs.nyc.ny.us.