If you are actively employed as a state employee, you cannot opt-out or withdraw any funds from your MOSERS defined benefit retirement plan. If you participate in MO Deferred Comp (the supplemental savings program), you may contact them at (800) 392-0925 or (573) 893-1053 to ask about making an emergency withdrawal from your savings.

Members of MSEP 2011 or the Judicial Plan 2011 who leave state employment may choose to either request a refund of their employee contributions (if they don’t anticipate returning to state employment) or leave their contributions with MOSERS (if they do anticipate returning to state employment).

Please note that, there is a 90-day waiting period and if you take a refund, you will forfeit all your credited service. Alternatively, you may leave your contributions with the System if you think you might return to work for the state at some point in the future and would like for those years of service to count toward an eventual retirement benefit. To learn more, please visit our Refund of Employee Contributions page. 

If you saved money with the MO Deferred Comp Plan while employed with the state, you do have the option to withdraw your 457 savings penalty-free upon leaving state service or you may roll your savings balance to another qualified retirement savings plan. Please visit www.modeferredcomp.org for more information.

We encourage you to contact a tax professional or financial advisor for advice specific to your situation.

The number and types of beneficiaries you have depends primarily on your employment status and eligibility for MOSERS benefits:

• Actively employed as a state employee or
• Inactive-vested (worked long enough to earn a future pension benefit but no longer employed by the state and not yet retired) or
• Retired

ACTIVE: You may have beneficiaries for life insurance (if provided through MOSERS) and/or employee contributions (if you are a member of MSEP 2011 or the Judicial Plan 2011).

INACTIVE-VESTED: You may have beneficiaries for employee contributions (if you are a member of MSEP 2011 or the Judicial Plan 2011). However, you won’t make decisions about your future MOSERS defined benefit pension benefits, including those about survivor beneficiaries, until you apply for retirement.

RETIRED: You may have beneficiaries for life insurance (if provided through MOSERS and you retained life insurance coverage in retirement) and/or employee contributions (if you are a member of MSEP 2011 or the Judicial Plan 2011). You may change the above beneficiaries at any time. You are allowed to change your survivor beneficiaries for your MOSERS defined benefit pension only under the following circumstances:

• You were married at retirement, elected a joint & survivor benefit payment option and your spouse passes away. See more information about reporting a death.
• You were married at retirement, elected a joint & survivor benefit payment option and you get divorced after retirement. Go to the Life Events page and scroll down to Divorce.
• You were single at retirement, elected the Life Income Annuity benefit payment option and then got married. Go to the Life Events page and scroll down to Marriage.
• You elected one of the “life income with guaranteed payments” benefit payment options at retirement and want to change your beneficiary(ies).

Log in to myMOSERS and go to Forms. If any of the above apply to you, you will see the forms to update your beneficiaries. If you still have questions, please contact a MOSERS benefit counselor at mosers@mosers.org, (800) 827-1063 or (573) 632-6100.

If you participate in MO Deferred Comp, which is a supplemental savings plan separate from your MOSERS defined benefit pension plan, you may update your beneficiaries with MO Deferred Comp, on their website. 

Once you are vested (5 years of service for general state employees), you are eligible to receive a future pension benefit from MOSERS, even if you leave state employment. Once you reach retirement age and complete the retirement process, you will receive a monthly pension payment for your lifetime.

You cannot increase your 4% employee contributions that go into the MOSERS trust fund, but you can certainly increase the amount of supplemental savings that you put in MO Deferred Comp. For many state employees, income in retirement comes from three sources:

1. Your MOSERS defined benefit pension (based on your years of service and final average pay)
2. Social Security retirement benefits
3. Supplemental personal savings, such as with MO Deferred Comp

Another thing to consider is that, even if you aren’t vested, you may leave your employee contributions with the System if you think you might return to work for the state at some point in the future and would like for those years of service to count toward an eventual retirement benefit.  

However, if you leave state employment, you may request a refund of your employee contributions plus any credited interest. By law, there is a 90-day waiting period before we can issue a refund. By taking a refund, your forfeit all your credited service. You can log in to myMOSERS and find your total employee contributions plus any interest. Once logged in, click on the Personal Information tab. Then, click on Contribution Calculator. Scroll all the way to the bottom for your accumulated balance. If you are unable to log in, you may contact a MOSERS benefit counselor for your balance. See our Employee Contributions brochure for more information.

If you are a vested member of MSEP or MSEP 2000 and leave state employment prior to retirement, your pension stays secure with MOSERS and will be available to you when become eligible and complete the retirement process. See Leaving State Employment for more information.

Keep in mind that any benefit estimates you may have received assume you worked until your normal retirement date. If you leave employment, you will stop accruing service credit. As a result, your first eligible normal retirement date may be later and your benefit amount will be less. You may contact a MOSERS benefit counselor to get a revised estimate of your future benefit.

If you are a member of MSEP 2011, the same is true. Alternatively, you have the option to request a Refund of Employee Contributions. If you elect a refund, there is a 90-day waiting period and you will forfeit your future rights to receive a pension from MOSERS.

Members of MSEP 2011 or the Judicial Plan 2011 who leave state employment may choose to either request a refund (if they don’t anticipate returning to state employment) or leave their contributions with MOSERS (if they do anticipate returning to state employment).

If you decide to request a refund of your employee contributions, please be aware that there is a 90-day waiting period from the date of termination before MOSERS can issue a refund. You must complete the Member Request for Refund of Employee Contributions form, get it notarized, and submit it to MOSERS.

Please note that, if you take a refund, you will forfeit all your credited service. Alternatively, you may leave your contributions with the System if you think you might return to work for the state at some point in the future and would like for those years of service to count toward an eventual retirement benefit. To learn more, please visit our Refund of Employee Contributions page. 

You are not able to access your MOSERS defined benefit pension until retirement and it is not transferable to a pension plan in a different state. However, if you are no longer working in a MOSERS benefit-eligible position, and you are a member of MSEP 2011 or the Judicial Plan 2011, you may be eligible to request a refund of your employee contributions. By taking a refund, you will lose all your credited service and future rights to receive pension and LTD benefits from MOSERS. By law, there is a 90-day waiting period before we can issue a refund.

If you saved money with the MO Deferred Comp Plan while employed with the state, you do have the option to withdraw your 457 savings penalty-free upon leaving state service or you may roll your savings balance to another qualified retirement savings plan. Please visit www.modeferredcomp.org for more information.

You are correct. Upon meeting the termination and reemployment rules, you may return to work and continue receiving your monthly pension payment, as long as your position is not a MOSERS or MoDOT and Patrol Employees’ Retirement System (MPERS) benefit-eligible position (i.e. a position normally requiring at least 1,040 hours a year).

Contracted employees working directly under a private firm are not typically classified as state employees. Such employment should not interfere with your ability to receive your MOSERS benefit, however, we recommend that you contact the employer to confirm that anyone employed as such would not be considered a state employee.

If you return to work for the state of Missouri in a MOSERS or MPERS benefit-eligible position:

• Your monthly pension payment will stop.
• Depending on various factors (your plan, how long you work, etc.), you may or may not earn additional credited service during reemployment.
• When you retire again, your monthly pension payment will equal the amount you were receiving when you returned to work plus any additional benefit you may have earned during reemployment.

It is the responsibility of your employer, not MOSERS, to determine if the position you are working in is a MOSERS benefit-eligible position. Generally speaking, an employee must work in a position normally requiring at least 1,040 hours per year to qualify for MOSERS benefits. If your employer determines that the position is not benefit-eligible and you have followed the termination and reemployment rules outlined below, you may work in that position and still get your MOSERS pension benefits.

Termination and Reemployment Rules

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

• You have completely severed employment;
• You 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
• You 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 your employment with your prior employer has ended.

See FAQs on Termination and Reemployment Rules and a flyer on Termination and Reemployment Rules for more information.

Reemployment

Upon meeting the termination and reemployment rules, you may return to work and continue receiving your monthly pension payment, as long as your position is not a MOSERS or MoDOT and Patrol Employees’ Retirement System (MPERS) benefit-eligible position.

If you return to work for the state of Missouri in a MOSERS or MPERS benefit-eligible position:

• Your monthly pension payment will stop.
• Depending on various factors (your plan, how long you work, etc.), you may or may not earn additional credited service during reemployment.
• When you retire again, your monthly pension payment will equal the amount you were receiving when you returned to work plus any additional benefit you may have earned during reemployment.

It depends on where you transfer to. If you are transferring from a benefit-eligible position with one MOSERS-covered employer to a benefit-eligible position with another MOSERS-covered employer, then yes, your retirement date would stay the same, as long as you don’t have a break in service. This is a nice advantage of working for the state since it gives you so many options.

If you move to an employer not covered by MOSERS, then you still may be able to transfer service credit but you would need to ask that employer and/or retirement system to determine if your retirement eligibility date will change. For example, the Missouri Department of Transportation is covered under MPERS not MOSERS. If you went to work for a public school system, it may be covered by PSRS/PEERS. This is an important question to get answered before you make your decision to transfer or not. 

A vested member of MOSERS who later takes a job covered by PSRS/PEERS may elect to transfer their service. This transfer is not a day-for-day transfer. The transferring system sends the actuarial value of the member’s service to the other system, which then converts that value to service. Members may purchase any remaining service not covered by the transfer at full actuarial cost.

There are a variety of provisions that may allow employees to purchase or transfer service between MOSERS and another public retirement plan in Missouri. You are not required to purchase or transfer service if you move from one retirement system to another. You can potentially earn retirement benefits from more than one system.

Depending on your plan, see either the Purchasing and Transferring Service Credit brochure (MSEP & MSEP 2000) or the Purchasing and Transferring Service Credit brochure (MSEP 2011), or contact a MOSERS benefit counselor for more information about your individual situation.