Yes, your pension is secure.

As an institutional investor, MOSERS, like many public pension funds across the country, maintains a diversified portfolio to invest the funds of the System. Within the portfolio, MOSERS utilizes external fund managers when investing in non-US securities, rather than any direct investing. As of March 1, MOSERS had approximately $9 million of indirect Russian exposure within MOSERS’ global investment funds. This exposure, which is a portion of MOSERS’ diversified investment strategy, accounts for approximately 0.07%  (seven one-hundredths of one percent) of the total MOSERS portfolio exposure of $13.3 billion.

The MOSERS Board of Trustees will hold a special Board meeting on Thursday, March 3, at 4:00 p.m. to discuss Russian exposure within MOSERS’ asset allocation.

Unfortunately, the answer is no. If you retired under MOSERS without any MOSERS life insurance, you cannot add it later. Below are the guidelines.

MOSERS offers basic life insurance of one times their annual salary at no cost to active employees. MOSERS members can purchase additional optional life insurance while actively working.

Basic Retiree Coverage After Retirement

• If you retire within 60 days of leaving state employment, the state will continue to provide you with $5,000 of coverage at no cost to you.
• If you wish to do so, you have 60 days from your retirement date to port or convert any remaining basic life insurance through The Standard Insurance Company.

Optional Life Insurance and Retaining Coverage After Retirement

If you retire within 60 days of leaving state employment, or retire directly from active employment, you may be eligible to retain some of your optional life insurance coverage.

• You may retain up to $60,000 in coverage if you are a member of the MSEP. Your coverage cannot exceed the amount your carried while actively employed.
• You may retain all of your optional coverage until age 62 if you are a general state employee who retired under the “Rule of 80” (MSEP 2000) or the “Rule of 90” (MSEP 2011). At age 62, your coverage will automatically reduce to a maximum of $60,000.

Once you terminate coverage in retirement, it cannot be reinstated. You cannot increase your coverage after retirement.

When you make an application to retire with MOSERS, you will have options regarding how your retirement benefit will be paid. BackDROP is simply another payment option available to you if you have worked at least 2 years beyond eligibility for normal retirement (“Rule of 80” or any other age & service eligibility criteria).   

If you work beyond when your reach eligibility for normal retirement (under the “Rule of 80” or any other eligibility criteria), your pay can be included in your highest 36 months of pay IF it is not in your BackDROP period.

Any pay or service you get during your BackDROP period is not counted when calculating your monthly benefit payment. If you become eligible for and elect the BackDROP upon retirement, your highest 36 consecutive months would be determined from your MOSERS-covered work history prior to your BackDROP date.

But keep in mind, you are not required to take BackDROP, regardless of how long you work beyond normal retirement eligibility, and you don’t have to notify MOSERS of any decisions about BackDROP until you retire.

Options:

• You may elect not to take BackDROP, if you want all your service and pay to count and, likely, increase your monthly benefit, or,
• You could elect to take a shorter BackDROP period, or
• You could work additional years, if you want to take advantage of a significant increase in pay being included in your Final Average Pay.

Our BackDROP page, with a BackDROP graphic near the bottom, may help you visualize how it works or you can read the BackDROP brochure for more information. BackDROP can be complicated to understand, so MOSERS benefit counselors are available to help by phone or through an in-person appointment.

Note: BackDROP is available only to general state employees (including university employees) in MSEP and MSEP 2000. 

In order to give priority to our members who may not have been able to attend a session in 2020 or 2021, we are not allowing spouses or guests to attend with you at an in-person Ready to Retire seminar in 2022. However, your spouse or guest is welcome (and encouraged) to attend with you in an online webinar.

Once you meet both the age and service requirements for normal retirement, there is no tax penalty for collecting your monthly defined benefit pension payment from MOSERS prior to age 59 ½.

Given a retirement of age 55 or later and a rollover of a BackDROP payment to a qualified retirement account *(such as MO Deferred Comp), future withdrawals from that account prior to age 59 ½ would not be subject to a 10% early withdrawal penalty.

For further reference, please see the Special Tax Notice brochure for more details.

*Excludes Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA’s).

If you would like to change your email preferences and receive paper notifications, please log in to myMOSERS. After logging in, select Personal Information then Email Options. From there, you can uncheck the option to “Receive all notices electronically”. If you do so, we will mail hard copies of your member correspondence to you. We will still send some information, which is not available in hard copy, such as the quarterly Board meeting updates, via email. If you are unable to log in, please contact a MOSERS benefit counselor who will be happy to help you.

When you retire, you will get a monthly pension benefit for life. Your base benefit is calculated using a formula, as defined by law, that takes into account the following factors:

• Final Average Pay (FAP) – The average of your highest 36 consecutive months of pay

• Multiplier – The multiplier established by the legislature

• Credited Service – Your years and months of credited service earned, purchased, or transferred, and unused sick leave (if applicable)

(Base benefit is the amount before any reductions, taxes, or other deductions.)

 To answer your questions, specifically,

• Is it the top three in all years of service? Do they have to be in a row? Can they be spread out? It is your highest 36 consecutive months pay. We will look at your entire pay history and find the “high 36”.  All 36 months must be in a row.
• Does that include Backdrop time? No. If you elect BackDROP at retirement, any pay earned during the BackDROP period does not count in your “high 36”.
• What if your income for the years served are higher than the salary of a specified job? For example, if you made $70,000 but your max pay for that job is $49,000 what is your retirement based on? We look at your gross pay, as reported by your employer, which may include overtime pay and holiday pay. We do not look at your job title or pay ranges.

Here is an example of how the base benefit formula works for a person whose gross pay is $50,000 per year (for at least 36 months) and who retires under MSEP 2000 with 25 years of service:

 FAP ($4,167) x Multiplier (0.017) x Credited Service (25) = $1,770.98 monthly base benefit in retirement

Yes, there is an option to pre-pay health insurance premiums in retirement with a payout for unused annual leave. However, this is outside of the scope of benefits that MOSERS administers.

Please contact your HR office, MCHCP, and ASI Flex for details on the forms you will need to complete and the associated deadlines. Additionally, we encourage you to check with your human resources office about policies on annual and sick leave accrual and usage before retirement. 

Please note that the amount of your unused annual leave has no impact on your MOSERS retirement benefits.

No, they are not the same. A W-2 form comes from an employer, not from MOSERS. A W-2 shows income you’ve earned from your employer. A 1099-R shows distributions you have received from pensions and other retirement plans.

MOSERS provides you with a 1099-R tax form. This form lists your 2021 retirement benefit income from MOSERS. You will need this form to file your income tax return. If you receive more than one benefit from MOSERS, you may receive more than one 1099-R from us.

We will mail your 1099-R form by the end of January. You can also access it online by logging into myMOSERS You will find it under Personal Information and available for you to save or print.  If you are unable to log in to myMOSERS, call us at (800) 827-1063 or (573) 632-6100 and we can mail you a replacement. For security reasons, we cannot email it to you.

The COLA rate for 2022 is 3.758%.

According to Missouri state law, MOSERS calculates COLAS as follows:

Each January, we must compare the average Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the calendar year just completed (2021) to the average CPI from the prior year (2020) to determine the percentage change between the two years. For general state employees, COLAs are based on 80% of the percentage increase in the average (CPI) from one year to the next. The maximum increase is 5% (minimum 0%).

The 2022 COLA rate of 3.758% applies to: 

• All retired members of MSEP 2000 and MSEP 2011
• MSEP retirees who have reached their 65% COLA cap
• MSEP retirees first employed on or after August 28, 1997

If you were employed before August 28, 1997, and retired under MSEP, you will get a COLA of at least 4% each year (maximum 5%) until you reach your COLA cap. You reach the COLA cap when the sum of your COLAs equals 65% of your initial base benefit amount. After reaching your COLA cap, your annual COLA will be equal to 80% of the percentage increase in the average Consumer Price Index (CPI) from one year to the next, which, as noted above, is 3.758 for 2022.

The purpose of a COLA for any type of pay or retirement benefit is to help you cope with inflation. COLAs help you maintain your purchasing power as inflation increases the cost of various items you buy. See the article, The 2022 COLA is Here, and the COLA page on our website for more information.