Annual Benefit Statements

Your statement includes information like your membership entry date, years of service credit (including purchased service), and your highest average compensation as of the end of the fiscal year. It also includes your total employee contributions, designated beneficiaries, and retirement benefit estimates for up to three future dates.

Please review the information on your statement carefully and notify MCERA of any potential discrepancies as soon as possible.

The estimated benefit amounts shown on your statement are projections based on information we currently have in our system. Changes in your membership, tier, final average compensation, work schedule, plan provisions or laws may change your actual future retirement benefit amount.

Annual Benefit Statements reflect the current information we have in our database as of the date of the statement. Corrections reported by your employer or changes to data due to errors found during audits may change the information in your Annual Benefit Statement. Adjustments to your service credit or final average compensation may also change the retirement benefit estimates we provide.

Your Annual Benefit Statement reflects your beneficiary designation as of the statement date. If you returned a Beneficiary Change Form to our office after June 30, your newly named beneficiary is not on your statement but is current in our system.

If you need to update your beneficiary designation complete a Beneficiary Change Form and return it to our office.

Please note that divorce or dissolution of a domestic partnership does not automatically change your beneficiary. You must complete a new form and submit the appropriate dissolution documents to change your designation.

If you have initiated a buyback of extra hire time or medical leave without pay but have not completed all of the required payments, your Annual Benefit Statement will reflect only the amount of service credit for which you have made payments through the effective date of the statement.

If you have initiated a redeposit of previously withdrawn contributions but have not completed all of the required payments, your statement will only reflect that service once the total redeposit is made.

The Annual Benefit Statement you receive from MCERA shows the service credit you earned while in active MCERA membership with one or more of our participating employers. As a reciprocal member you should continue to receive annual statements from your other public pension plan(s). You can combine the service credit reported by your other pension plan with the service credit reported by MCERA to determine your total service credit for vesting and retirement eligibility.

Your Membership Entry Date is the date you first entered a permanent position and began paying retirement contributions. You may have worked for your employer as an extra hire, temporary or seasonal employee; however, purchasing all or a portion of this time will not change your Membership Entry Date.

Your employer makes contributions to MCERA which are used to help fund the cost of your future retirement benefits. These contributions are kept in a separate employer account and used to fund employee benefits for all employees as a group. If you separate employment and choose to withdraw your contributions, you will receive the member contributions in your account. You will benefit from your employer’s contributions only upon retirement.

If you have specific questions about any of the information contained on your Annual Benefit Statement or if you believe the reported information is incorrect please contact our office at (415) 473-6147.