You may be eligible for a loan from your pension fund account (Qualified Pension Plan or QPP) if:

• you are either an in-service member or on a leave of absence,
• you are not in default on an existing pension loan.
• as a Tier I or II member, you have at least three years of TRS membership service; OR
• as a Tier III, IV or VI member, you have at least one year of TRS credited service.

You may learn whether you are currently eligible to take a loan by logging in to the TRS website at www.trsnyc.org.

You may be eligible for a TDA loan if

• you have participated in the TDA Program for at least one year;
• you are an in-service member, or you are on a leave of absence, or you have TDA Deferral status;
• you are not in default on an existing TDA loan.

You may learn whether you are currently eligible to take a loan by logging in to the TRS website at www.trsnyc.org.

If you have a username and password on the TRS website at www.trsnyc.org, you can enroll in the TDA Program online at any time. When you enroll in the TDA Program, you should also designate a TDA beneficiary, which is available on the TRS website. If you are a member of BERS, call 929-305-3800.

Tier I — those who joined TRS before July 1, 1973.

Tier II — those who joined TRS after June 30, 1973 and before July 27, 1976

Tier III — those who joined TRS after July 26, 1976 and before September 1, 1983

All Tier III members may retire under Tier IV.

Tier IV (age 62) — those who joined TRS after August 31, 1983 but prior to Feb. 28, 2008.  Many Tier IV members have opted into the 55/25 plan.

Tier IV (55/27) — those who joined after Feb. 28, 2008 but prior to April 1, 2012.

Tier VI — those who joined the retirement system after March 31, 2012.

First, your contributions are deducted from your paycheck before taxes are taken out; as a result, your current taxes are lower. (For New York residents, this includes federal, state and local taxes. Please check with your accountant about state taxes if you are not a resident of New York State.) Furthermore, taxes are deferred on both your contributions and your investment return; therefore, more of your money remains invested, and your money grows faster than it would in a comparable investment that isn’t tax-deferred. Finally, taxes are payable at the rate charged when you withdraw the funds, a rate that may be lower than your tax rate during your peak earnings years. Another important benefit is that your contributions are made through payroll deductions; this makes saving for your retirement automatic and convenient.

It is very important to choose a beneficiary or beneficiaries so you can be sure that if you die while you are still working for the New York City public schools the person(s) you choose receives your death benefit, instead of leaving it up to the courts. You need to designate beneficiaries for both your pension and your Tax Deferred Annuity, and remember to keep your designations up to date if circumstances change. You can view or change your current beneficiaries for your Qualified Pension Plan (QPP) and TDA accounts by logging in to the TRS website at www.trsnyc.org. BERS members may call 929-305-3800.

In some cases, Tiers III, IV and VI members can purchase service credit for certain employment they had before joining TRS. For your service to be eligible, the work had to have been rendered while you were in public employment in New York City or New York State. Generally, any New York City or New York State service rendered prior to your membership date may count as pensionable service.

In addition to the defined benefit Qualified Pension Plan, the Teachers’ Retirement System and the Board of Education Retirement System offer a voluntary program, the Tax-Deferred Annuity (TDA) that allows you to save additional money for your retirement. Taxes are deferred on your contributions to the TDA and on any investment earnings from those contributions until you withdraw the money as income. How much your contributions earn depends on your investment choices. Upon retiring, you may receive your TDA funds in various ways, including as an annuity that is separate from and in addition to your pension allowance.

Your pension is governed by state law and protected by the State Constitution. Whenever the State Legislature made substantial changes in public employee pensions, it passed a new law creating a new plan for people hired after the law’s effective date. So public employees fall into different pension plans depending on when they began their service.

The plans may have different costs and benefits, so to find out about your pension plan, you need to know what tier you are in. In some cases, people are permitted to change tiers or to transfer their tier membership from another eligible retirement system.

Yes.