As a calendar year draws to a close, REs may have some individuals who are retiring midyear. Here are some items to keep in mind as you close out these employees and prepare to submit their retirement certification. Also included are some reminders for employees who are planning to return to work after retirement.
The RE Portal Certification User Guide contains a full description of each field on the Retirement Certification. Please also review the FAQs about Retirement Certification.
Reporting Final Active Employment/Termination
- Ensure that your system does not create an incorrect contract for the final month. This will impede the posting of the final pay and may cause additional corrections during final retirement processing.
- Review the reports to ensure that the correct number of days and hours have been reported for the final month.
- If an employee has no days and hours worked in the month of their final paycheck, please be sure that you include the correct Zero Day Reason Code as F-Final Pay.
- Ensure that your system creates an ED 90 to terminate employment in the month that the final pay is received. Review the Final Report month for accuracy.
- Any vacation/leave payout that is paid AFTER the employee’s final pay is not considered TRS eligible and does not need to be reported.
Retirement Certification
- Will be sent after the retirement date has passed AND the retirement application from the member has been processed. The very earliest that you will see the retirement certification will be the first of the month after the member selected retirement date.
- The retirement certification can only be filled out once the payroll data, including all pay, has been issued.
- Review the accuracy of all Salary Information and Final report month provided to TRS. Incorrect information may result in a delay or incorrect benefit payments for your employee.
- If you receive communication from a member of the TRS Retirements team, please respond as promptly as possible.
- It may take 30-60 days to fully process an employee’s retirement once all the documents are received. Please refer any questions about retirement processing to a TRS Benefits Counselor at 1-800-223-8778. TRS Benefits Counselors are available Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Returning to Work
- All retirees must complete a one full calendar month break in service prior to returning to work as a retiree. Failure to observe this required break in service will revoke their retirement and require the repayment of any erroneous annuity payments.
- Please refer all retiree-specific Employment After Retirement questions to a TRS Benefits Counselor at 1-800-223-8778. TRS Benefits Counselors are available Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. Retirees are responsible for understanding their return to work restrictions and each retiree may have a different limitation.
Please feel free to provide the retiree with links to the Employment After Retirement information: