Secure Your Future

Your future rests securely on a four-legged stool

Sep 6, 2007 9:02 PM

We hope that you had a good rest and are ready for the new term. Our new contract goes into effect in October and teachers on maximum salary will earn more than $100,000 per year as of May 19, 2008. Everyone will receive a 2 percent raise in October and a 5 percent raise in May. You all know that in our defined benefit (DB) pension plan, this translates into higher lifetime payments when you retire.

While not unique, pension plans like ours are getting rarer and rarer. Outside of public employment, generally only heavily unionized industries protect their employees with DB pension plans. As retirement becomes a riskier and riskier option for most Americans, our retirement security is still very strong because we have a traditional DB pension, Social Security, a defined contribution option and health insurance in retirement. Our retirement benefits are still the perfect four-legged stool that provides our retirees with great economic security.

Your support of the UFT and its political action campaigns has been vital in attaining our fine benefits and in maintaining them for the future. We hope you are all contributing to COPE. If you are not, please ask your chapter leader for information.

Venturesome members

The Spring Issue of the Teachers’ Retirement System publication for retirees, “Benefits Report,” listed where the 68,857 retired members lived as of Dec. 31, 2006. Most, as you might guess — 47,388 — still live in New York State. The rest live in all 49 of the other states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and 291 have ventured to foreign countries to live. Alaska and North Dakota have one retiree each and Florida is the permanent address for 8,613 retirees. There are thousands more who live in Florida part time as “snowbirds” and “snowflakes.”

The UFT maintains an office in Boca Raton to service our retired members in Florida. These members make up a potent voting block, last year helping to elect two new members of Congress with favorable positions on our issues to replace two representatives who held anti-UFT positions.

Wherever you choose to move after retirement, your retirement allowance, health benefits and UFT services follow you.

UFT offers many pension services

For most of us, the benefits we enjoy through retirement system membership are our largest fiscal asset. The UFT seeks to keep you informed about these benefits by supplying the following services:

this column, which appears in each issue of the New York Teacher;

a pension newsletter, PensioNews;

factual pension handbooks;

speakers for chapter meetings or faculty conferences;

pension consultants in each borough office for consultations when appropriate or to answer phone questions;

boroughwide meetings on tax-deferred annuities and other current issues;

the “Ready-or-Not” program for those five to 10 years from retirement;

pension clinics for all tiers for those two to three years from retiring;

a final consultation to give detailed information to members about to retire;

three teacher-members who represent you on the Teachers’ Retirement Board; and

up-to-date information on the union’s Web site: www.uft.org.

Pension file

Each member of the Teachers’ Retirement System should set up and maintain a file of important pension-related papers. This file should be accessible to a trusted person and should include

your copy of the up-to-date Designation of Beneficiary form for the Qualified Pension Plan (QPP), and if you participate in the TDA program, a separate TDA Designation of Beneficiary form;

your most recent Annual Benefits Statement (ABS), which among other things has a record of your credited service and a listing of your beneficiaries

your most recent Quarterly Account Statement(s) (QAS), one for QPP and one for the TDA, if you participate; and

any other document relevant to your retirement benefits (such as tier change and purchase of layoff time documents).

Pension calendar

September: Newly appointed members and paras, who have not done so, should file TRS enrollment applications. Nonappointed pedagogues and part-timers, who have not done so, should enroll in the Board of Education Retirement System (BERS).

October/November: Study carefully the facts about the TDA program. Read the articles in the New York Teacher and study materials provided by the TRS. Join the TDA program as soon as possible if you are not currently enrolled in order to maximize your contributions for the 2008 tax year.

April: Tier I/II members must make decisions on the investment of their Annuity Savings Fund and their Increased-Take-Home-Pay accounts. Review your investment goals carefully. April is the month to elect changes in your participation in the fixed program or the two variable programs. The deadline for filing a change is May 1. Changes begin on July 1.

TDA quarterly investment changes

Here are the dates for quarterly investment changes for TDA, including deferred accounts:

Nov. 1 to Dec. 1 (or the last business day of November, if Dec. 1 falls on a weekend)

Feb. 1 to March 1 (or the last business day of February, if March 1 falls on a weekend)

May 1 to June 1 (or the last business day of May, if June 1 falls on a weekend)

Aug. 1 to Sept. 1 (or the last business day of August, if Sept. 1 falls on a weekend).

Changes take effect on Jan. 1, April 1, July 1 and Oct. 1, respectively.

If you have any retirement-related items you would like to see in this column please feel free to contact one of us.

Protect your loved ones

Between January 2000 and June 30, 2006, 56,938 new TRS members were enrolled. They were asked as part of the enrollment process to submit Designation of Beneficiary forms as well as proof of date-of-birth (DOB) documentation. Fewer than half of the new members have done so. Only 45 percent have filed beneficiary forms (each person in the system needs one for the QPP and one for the TDA). Even fewer, 40 percent, have filed DOB documentation.

Members who have not filed these forms are leaving themselves and their loved ones at great financial risk. Beneficiary forms can be obtained at the UFT or TRS or downloaded from the TRS’ Web site at www.trs.nyc.ny.us. We cannot stress too strongly how important this matter is.

TDA

Members who enrolled in the TDA during the Spring Campaign should see deductions from their check on the first payroll in September.

“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.