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It is important to know that years of service in the retirement system most likely will not be the same as the number of years employed with the County. Retirement service credit is counted when you make contributions towards your retirement, not when you are first employed. There is no service credit for periods where no retirement contributions are taken, for example leave without pay, part-time, or in retirement ineligible positions (i.e. intermittent or project position, disability, etc.) Also, if you had at anytime withdrawn any contributions and not redeposited those periods withdrawn do not count towards retirement.

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When thinking about retirement, there are many factors to consider when selecting the effective date of retirement. Remember that your retirement is calculated on three (3) factors: your age, length of service, and your final average salary. You receive an incremental age adjustment, which slightly increases your benefit, for each quarter of a year increase in your age, up to age 55 (Safety), age 62 (Tier I) and age 65 (Tier II). For that reason, if you are age fifty-nine (59) and plan to retire this year, for example, you may want to make sure that your effective date of retirement follows the date you would turn 59. Another fact you will want to take into consideration is that the annual cost of living increase is effective on April 1st of each year. As long as you retire prior to April 1st, you will be eligible to receive the cost of living increase provided that year.

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Service credit is the measure of time earned as a member in ACERA. Service credit, one of three factors used in determining your benefit at retirement, plays an important part in determining what your retirement benefit will be when you retire. The more retirement service credit you have, the higher your benefit. The other two factors are age at retirement and your highest monthly final average salary for any one or three year period (depending on whether you are a Tier 1 or Tier 2 member).

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All requests for benefit estimates must be made in writing. Benefit estimate request forms are available from this web site (click HERE) or by contacting ACERA. Please note that ACERA will provide you with an estimate based on the unmodified option. The unmodified option is the base option on which all the other options are based. If you would like an estimate for a particular option type, it must be indicated on your request form. Temporary (added) annuity option estimates requires submittal of a Social Security Estimate. Also, estimates for Options 2 through 4 requires the age of your beneficiary. Estimates will be based on current highest average salary, there is no projection of future salary. Additionally estimates will not include any part-time, SDI or other public service credit not already purchased. You may also calculate your own estimate online (click HERE).

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