Did you know we have several benefit counselors who are available to meet with employees face to face in our Jefferson City office?

If members have questions about their MOSERS retirement, life insurance, or long-term disability benefits, they can certainly ask those questions over the phone or by email. However, if they prefer, they can schedule an appointment in our office. Counselors are available to assist members from 8:00 a.m. until noon and from 1:00 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Our benefit counselors can:

• Print off benefit estimates while you are here
• Discuss your retirement options
• Show you how to retire online
• Personally assist you if you need to submit a claim for life insurance or long-term disability
• And so much more!

Please encourage your employees to make an appointment in advance.

MOSERS has planned a routine system backup and update for Saturday, December 18, from 4 a.m. until approximately 3 p.m. The Employer Login and myMOSERS will be unavailable during this time. Please inform your employees. 

Life Services Toolkit Flyer – December 2021

Pension Payment & Holiday Schedule – December 2021

Long-Term Disability Handbook – November 2021

Retirement Guide – November 2021

MOSERS Organization Chart – November 2021

Smart Start Checklist – November 2021

Judges’ Retirement Handbook – October 2021

Benefits Provider Table – September 2021

For more information please visit MOSERS' Online Library: https://www.mosers.org/library

Employer Training Webinar – University Employers

Domestic or Sexual Violence Leave

Retirement Eligible Pay

Beware of Financial Planning Emails

From the Education Desk…

Department Newsletters

Benefits U Conference

Encourage your Employees to Retire Online!

Thank You!

The next Employer Training Webinar will be for UNIVERSITY HR representatives only. If you are a University HR representative, keep an eye out for your email invite with the link to register. Topics will include CURP vs. MOSERS eligibility, transferring employees from CURP to MOSERS, employees working in multiple positions, termination and reemployment rules, and retirement eligible pay. MO Deferred Comp will be providing a brief overview of the plan, highlighting ongoing issues within EZ Link, and discussing upcoming plan changes. 

Employees approved for domestic or sexual violence leave will receive service and salary credit towards retirement for such leave up to the two-week maximum.

We have added a new leave category for domestic or sexual violence to MOSERS’ Leave of Absence/Back to Work form.

If an employee will not receive pay or is receiving partial or intermittent pay due to an approved domestic or sexual violence leave, please submit a Leave of Absence/Back to Work form via the Employer Login to ensure the employee receives the proper credit towards retirement.

Please share the following with your employees: It has recently come to our attention that some employees have received emails from financial planning companies implying they are partnered with MOSERS. The content of the emails suggests that members must pay for a meeting with a retirement counselor and that they can learn how to increase their retirement savings. This is inaccurate. MOSERS has not authorized any outside financial planners to advise our members on their MOSERS benefits. 

As a reminder, the services offered through MOSERS and MO Deferred Comp are provided to MOSERS members at no cost. In regard to increasing their retirement savings, MOSERS members have the ability to meet with MO Deferred Comp financial education professionals to help make savings decisions as they prepare for retirement.

We advise all MOSERS members to stay vigilant and double check the email address in messages before clicking on any links.

2022 Education Schedule – Coming Soon!

We are currently in the process of finalizing our 2022 education schedule and anticipate having registration for Ready to Retire sessions open by mid-December. The schedule includes both in-person seminars and online webinars.

Does your agency have a periodic internal newsletter? We are always looking for new ways to get benefit information to our members. If your agency has a newsletter we would be happy to provide information regarding MOSERS benefits. Please answer a few questions in our survey to participate.

If you haven’t had a chance yet to view the 2021 BU Recap, or to watch the recordings from each track, including downloading any session handouts, you still have time! These resources will be available on the Benefits U Conference page until the end of this year. 

The most convenient way to apply for retirement is online. Employees can complete both steps in the two-step retirement process all at once or leave and come back later to finish. Visit our Ready to Retire page for more information about the retirement process. These resources will help you make informed decisions during the retirement process:

• Retire Online Video – A handy video on the process of retiring online
• Retirement Guide – Why and how to complete various forms
• Smart Start Checklist – A list of information you should have readily available when you apply for retirement
• Destination Retirement Checklist – Checklist of other benefit providers to contact and tasks to complete
• Benefit Providers Chart – Verify which organization provides your retirement, employee assistance, and life, long-term disability, medical, dental and vision insurance.

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, we would like to sincerely thank all HR representatives for your hard work and dedication. As a liaison between MOSERS and our members, we sincerely appreciate your diligence and efforts to educate your staff on the benefits we offer. You make a difference in people’s lives every single day. Thank you and Happy Holidays!

Long-Term Disability Handbook – November 2021

Retirement Guide – November 2021

MOSERS Organization Chart – November 2021

Smart Start Checklist – November 2021

Judges’ Retirement Handbook – October 2021

Benefits Provider Table – September 2021

For more information please visit MOSERS' Online Library: https://www.mosers.org/library

Benefits U Conference Recap

Annual Term Life Insurance Review

CURP Transfers

Termination and Reemployment Rules

Transferring Sick Leave 

Thank you again for attending the 2021 Benefits U Conference! We certainly appreciate all of your feedback and invite you to enjoy the 2021 BU Recap! We have also reviewed and edited the recordings for each track and removed the introduction, breaks, and wrap-up sessions to allow direct access to the session content. All four tracks are on the BU Online page. This is a private channel accessible only via this link. If prompted, you may register to watch the recording by entering your name and email address. Each recording provides a timing breakdown and you may easily move through the recordings by using the progress bar at the bottom once you hit play. Recordings are also available on the BU Webpage.  

Phoenix

If you attended BU, you received a sneak peek of Phoenix! Phoenix is the new pension administration system, which you will be using to interact with MOSERS starting in the next 12 to 18 months. 

For those of you who attended BU, if you felt overwhelmed with all the information regarding Phoenix, don’t worry! If you did NOT attend Benefits U, don’t worry!

Thorough training and ongoing support are in the future and will be provided closer to our go-live date. Attendees saw how efficient and automated Phoenix will be as it interacts behind the scenes with SAM II and non-SAM II payroll files. This level of automation will improve the accuracy of our member data, which ultimately increases customer service.

If you would like more information regarding Phoenix, you can read past HR Update articles about Phoenix here. 

We cannot do what we do without YOU! Thank you for all of the work you put in to help us serve our members.

Please share with your employees!

Before receiving a benefit payment from MOSERS, IRS rules require a “bona fide termination” of a member’s employment. For purposes of MOSERS Board Rules, a "bona fide termination" occurs when:

• They have completely severed employment;
• They have not entered into a prearranged agreement (written or oral), prior to retirement, with the State of Missouri or any MOSERS-covered employer for subsequent employment on any basis (full-time, part-time, or other); and
• They are not subsequently employed with the State of Missouri or any MOSERS-covered employer on any basis (full-time, part-time, or other) within 30 days after their employment with their prior employer has ended.

For more information please see our  FAQs on Termination and Reemployment Rules and our Termination and Reemployment Rules flyer

Please note that if they do not have a bona fide separation of service, their retirement will be null and void, meaning they will not receive their pension payments.

Sick leave hours accrued by an employee at a MOSERS covered college or university may be transferred to a state agency or vice versa.

To verify a member’s transferred sick leave from a state agency to a MOSERS covered college or university position, you will need to do the following:

• The HR representative from the college or university will need to contact the SAM II HR representative from the employee’s previous state agency employer.
• For agencies that do not report sick leave in SAM II, unused sick leave should be reported in hours only (not days). If the employee has no sick leave, please enter “0.” Do not leave blank.

For retirement purposes, employees may receive service credit for unused sick leave as reported by the last employer only.

Termination and Reemployment Rules flyer – September 2021

Benefits Provider Table – September 2021

Leave of Absence Impact on Your MOSERS Benefits flyer – September 2021

MOSERS Organization Chart – September 2021

Division of Benefits Order – Request for Estimate Form – August 2021

Life Services Toolkit Flyer – August 2021

Total Compensation Calculator – July 2021

For more information please visit MOSERS' Online Library: https://www.mosers.org/library

30-Day Separation of Service Reminder 

Annual Term Life Insurance Review

Benefits U Conference

Phoenix Update

HR Update: New Tags Feature