Phoenix Update

Summer Education

The timeline for Phoenix implementation will be changing. We are working with our vendor to project a tentative date for deployment. We will update you on training dates and post-go-live support as soon as we know more.

In the meantime, please continue to send timely termination, transfer, and leave of absence forms to MOSERS for your employees and work monthly Aged Accounts Receivable (AAR) reports. Carrying past-due AAR errors can lead to inaccurate retirement records for your employees and will cause a backlog of work when we transition to Phoenix.

Please email employers@mosers.org if you have questions or call an Employer Services analyst at (800) 827-1063 option 2.

Encourage your staff to enroll in summer education!

As an HR rep, you also have an open invitation to attend any member education session. See the information below. Just call us at (800) 827-1063 or (573) 632-6100 and ask for Debbie at ext. 1231, or email MOSERSEducation@mosers.org. 

We still have seats available at several in-person Ready to Retire seminars and webinars for this summer. These sessions are designed for general state employees who are within 5 years of retirement eligibility.

School is always more fun with a friend! Members are welcome to bring a spouse/guest with them!

How do they enroll?

Members can log in to myMOSERS, click on Education Enrollment, then on Ready to Retire, and follow the prompts. Additional dates are available this fall.

Extra Credit Homework

There are several things they can do to help prepare for the session and for retirement. They can use the Comparison Calculator to see the long-term impact of different retirement options. Log in to their MO Deferred Comp account and review their last statement. Open a mySocialSecurity account to review their most recent Social Security Statement.

Not Within 5 Years of Retirement Eligibility? 

No worries, we have education sessions for all of our members covered online!

Newer to MOSERS - We have designed webinars specifically for employees who are newer to the state with at least six months but less than five years of service (not yet vested). Check out the dates for the Newer Employees & MOSERS webinars today!

Mid Career - If they are a Mid-Career member, with at least five years of service (vested) and ten or more years until retirement eligibility, they can also find education tailored specially to their career stage. Learn more about Mid-Career webinars today!

Understanding Your Backdrop Benefit Estimate – April 2023

Missouri Public Pension Exemption flyer – March 2023

Special Tax Notice (BackDROP and Refunds) – March 2023

Transferring from CURP to MOSERS brochure & form – March 2023

CURP Overview – February 2023

CURP Transfers to MOSERS flyer – February 2023

Employer Contribution Rate infographic – February 2023

Retirement Guide – February 2023

Smart Start Checklist – February 2023

Stay Up to Date with Monthly Error Reports

Newer Employees & MOSERS Webinars

Phoenix Vocab of the Month

Phoenix Update

Spring is here! 

Please stay current on your monthly AAR reports!  

To ensure a smooth transition to Phoenix this fall, all past-due AAR errors must be resolved no later than September 1. 

It will be imperative to have up-to-date and accurate service and salary data for your employees before we switch to Phoenix. Up-to-date records will help to ensure a smooth transition and avoid a potential backlog of work.  

If you have questions about monthly AAR reports, please contact the Employer Services team by emailing employers@mosers.org or calling (800) 827-1063 option 2. 

Employees can start learning about the state benefits administered by MOSERS, including pension plan features, life insurance, long-term disability, and their personal retirement savings plan options with MO Deferred Comp. This one-and-a-half-hour session is for state employees with at least 6 months, but less than five years of service. Tell your employees to register via GoTo Webinar for a daytime session or evening session. 

Did you know that HR Reps are allowed to attend education sessions? We encourage you to register for an educational session to learn more about MOSERS benefits to help educate your employees! 

Reporting Group: A group that is tied to an employer, with which sections, employees, and employer reps are associated. Each reporting group is associated with a specific pay cycle (e.g., monthly, biweekly, etc.) Permissions to the Phoenix Employer Portal will be based on the reporting group. For SAM II agencies, the reporting group will be a combination of the SAM II agency and organization code(s).

Local Employer Representative (ER): An individual at a non-SAM II agency with secure access to the Phoenix Employer Portal. A Local Employer Representative from each reporting group will be responsible for payroll reports. These reps have access to the expanded or condensed file format (set per reporting group) and may roll forward previous payrolls.

SAM II Employer Representative: An individual at a SAM II agency with secure access to the Phoenix Employer Portal. A SAM II Employer Representative from each reporting group will be responsible for payroll reports. These reps have access to the SAM II (expanded) file format but are not able to upload, download or roll forward.  

Spring is a good time to remind your employees to “clean up” their life insurance beneficiary designations and make sure they are current! They can check the beneficiaries listed in their Annual Benefit Statement. They may change these at any time by logging in to myMOSERS. Their beneficiary information will be displayed below their current life insurance coverage amount. They may change their designation while they are logged in by selecting Forms from the main menu, then Life Insurance Beneficiaries.

*Conservation and College & University Employees (except Lincoln University and State Technical College of Missouri): As you know, some of their benefits (such as health care and life insurance coverage, among others) are provided directly through their employer, so no information on these benefits appears in their 2023 Annual Benefit Statement from MOSERS.

Special Tax Notice (BackDROP and Refunds) – March 2023

Transferring from CURP to MOSERS brochure & form – March 2023

CURP Overview – February 2023

CURP Transfers to MOSERS flyer – February 2023

Employer Contribution Rate infographic – February 2023

Retirement Guide – February 2023

Smart Start Checklist – February 2023

Your Guide to the Colleges & Universities Retirement Plan – February 2023

Trica Kliethermes, Shelley Lehmann, Megan Schulte, Jamie Mullen, Megan Hendrickson, Stacey Singer

Are you familiar with our employer services team?

They are a great resource for all your MOSERS-related questions!

You can contact Employer Services by emailing employers@mosers.org or calling (800) 827-1063 option 2. Members of MOSERS with questions about their own benefits should use option 1 to reach a benefit counselor.

We know you have been hearing a lot about the transition to our upcoming new Pension Administration System, Phoenix. We are scheduled to deploy Phoenix in September 2023!

As a reminder, MOSERS has built the new system to:

• Improve accuracy and controls
• Become more nimble through a single integrated solution
• Improve security
• Become more efficient and increase automation
• Sustain and improve customer service

If we progress as anticipated, Employer Training will be held in August. Be sure to read the monthly HR Updates and check your emails from MOSERS in the coming months, as we will be in touch with more Phoenix information. We are excited to finally share this new system with you, our valued employer partners! 

Did you know that employer reps are encouraged to attend MOSERS educational seminars?

All employer reps have a standing invitation to attend any of our webinars or seminars to learn more about member benefits and the retirement process. If you are not near retirement and eligible to attend yet, no worries! Just contact MOSERS and we will get you registered. 

Mark your calendars for November 14, 2023! Benefits University (BU) is back and in person this year.

BU will be hosted by MOSERS at the Stoney Creek Inn, in Columbia, MO. We will be covering various important topics during the conference including the new Pension Administration System, Phoenix. 

As we prepare for the transition to Phoenix later in 2023, it will be vital that you stay current on monthly error reports and submit any outstanding leave of absence, transfer, or termination forms to MOSERS.

Having as up-to-date and accurate service and salary data as possible for your employees before we switch to Phoenix will help to ensure a smooth transition and avoid a potential backlog of work. 

Maintaining the accuracy of member records is a joint effort between our staff and covered employers. Please don't hesitate to contact the Employer Services team with your MOSERS-related questions by emailing employers@mosers org or calling (800) 827-1063 option 2.

For more information about error reports, please view our Aged Accounts Receivable and Termination Error Reports Video and Employer Error Report Webinar.

CURP Overview – February 2023

CURP Transfers to MOSERS flyer – February 2023

Employer Contribution Rate infographic – February 2023

Retirement Guide – February 2023

Smart Start Checklist – February 2023

Your Guide to the Colleges & Universities Retirement Plan – February 2023

Pay is a key component in calculating an employee's future pension benefit. Part of the pension benefit formula uses an employee's "final average pay," which is the average of an employee's highest consecutive 36 months of pay. Accurate reporting of retirement-eligible pay to MOSERS ensures that member retirement benefit estimates and retirement benefits are calculated correctly.

Retirement-eligible pay includes all salary and wages payable to an employee for work performed. The following are among those payments excluded from retirement-eligible pay and must not be reported as salary and wages:

• Allowances and reimbursements for items such as phones, meals, uniforms, mileage or commuting, education or tuition, and housing or moving.
• Nonrecurring single-sum payments (such as a one-time bonus).
• Payments for unused annual leave or sick leave.
• Payments made after termination, unless it is for a final installment of salary or wages (such as a comp time payout or contract payout).
• Pay in excess of IRS compensation limits ($330,000 for 2023).
• Payments for which employer contributions have not been made.

For SAM II employers, non-retirement-eligible pay codes are automatically excluded from reporting to MOSERS. 

Non-SAM II employers must ensure that payroll files submitted to MOSERS exclude all non-retirement-eligible sources of pay. 

Before making benefit payments, MOSERS must verify the accuracy of service and salary data reported by employers. 

Please don't hesitate to contact the Employer Services team with your MOSERS-related questions by emailing employers@mosers.org or calling (800) 827-1063 option 2.

We Need Your Help to Correct Member Data Errors 

Spread the Word! MOSERS Education Events Available for 2023 

Benefit Tip – Annual Benefit Statements Coming Soon

We collect contributions from you, our employer partners, to help fund retirement, life insurance, and long-term disability benefits for benefit-eligible state employees. 

Each month, we receive a record of the previous month's pay and contributions for all covered employees. Unfortunately, a small percentage of those records contain an error, or discrepancy, between the pay and contributions MOSERS expected to receive for an employee and what was actually received. 

There are two “Error Reports” within the Employer Login that must be worked each month to address pay and contribution discrepancies and ensure the accuracy of your employees’ benefits through MOSERS:

• The Aged Accounts Receivable Report (for active employees)
• The Terminated Report (for separated employees)

Employer representatives responsible for working the reports receive an email notification when a report is released and ready to work.  

As you may be aware, we are preparing to transition to a new pension administration system called Phoenix later in 2023. Due to closer integration with your payroll system, Phoenix will significantly reduce the number of payroll discrepancies that require your attention. Phoenix will even eliminate the need for you to submit a manual form to MOSERS when one of your employees has a change in status. We are confident that you will find the new system easy to use and more efficient. 

However, as we prepare for the transition, it will be vital that you stay current on monthly error reports in our current environment and submit any outstanding leave of absence, transfer, or termination forms to MOSERS. Having as up-to-date and accurate data as possible on that initial changeover to Phoenix will help to ensure a smooth transition and avoid a potential backlog of work if we don’t have the most current data for your employees. 

Maintaining the accuracy of member records is a joint effort between our staff and covered employers. Please don't hesitate to contact the Employer Services team with your MOSERS-related questions by emailing employers@mosers.org or calling (800) 827-1063 option 2.

For more information about error reports, please view our Aged Accounts Receivable and Termination Error Reports Video and Employer Error Report Webinar.