Retirement Planning Checklist

>> Welcome to the CalPERS webinar Retirement Planning Checklist. >> We're going to discuss a list of things you should be taking care of as you get ready to retire. >> Here's the agenda for today's webinar. We'll start with the things you want to do about a year away from retirement and gradually work our way up to retirement and beyond. We'll finish up with some tools and resources available to you and how to contact CalPERS. As we go through today's presentation, we'll reference several of CalPERS forms and publications that you may be interested in. So here's where you can go to find them: On our home page, www.CalPERS.ca.gov, you'll find the Forms & Publications Center. Using the Forms & Publications Center does not require a user name or password. As long as we're on the subject of publications, one of the publications you want to review as you prepare for your retirement is "Planning Your Service Retirement", which is our Publication #1. It has a great deal of good information, including a checklist similar to what we'll be reviewing here today. As long as we're on the subject of checklists, there's a version of the checklist on the website, in addition to the one in this publication. >> Let's start with one year out from retirement. The service credit you earn is part of the calculation for your retirement benefit. You want to make sure to review the most recent account information in my|CalPERS to make sure that your service credit is accurate. You can also find a link to your most recent annual member statement here. If you're a year or more away from retirement, use the retirement estimate calculator in your my|CalPERS account to estimate the amount of your pension and begin determining when you want to retire. It's important to be prepared when you decided to take such a big step. To get the answers to most of your questions, the "Planning Your Retirement" class is a great one to take if you're a year or even further from your retirement. Sign in to my|CalPERS and select the Education Resource tab to enroll. If you think you may be eligible to purchase service credit for employment not shown in your account, you should review "A Guide To Your CalPERS Service Credit Purchase Options" for eligibility information. Use the service credit cost estimator at CalPERS On-line to estimate the cost of the purchase. The request forms for certain types of service credit can only be found in the Results page for the online estimator. You must submit your request to purchase service credit before your retirement date to be eligible to purchase that time. In addition, you should contact the Social Security Administration for information on benefits you may be eligible for under their system and, of course, Medicare eligibility. You might want to contact a financial planner for assistance with coordinating your CalPERS benefits with your overall retirement planning. Please remember CalPERS does not provide financial planning services. If you have a community property claim on your retirement account because of a legal separation or divorce, you must provide CalPERS a copy of an acceptable court order that resolves the claim. It's important to understand that retirement benefits cannot be paid until your community property issue is resolved. You can find more information on what is required in the publication, "A Guide to CalPERS Community Property." >> Next is nine months prior to retirement. If you're also a member of another California retirement system other than CalPERS, there are steps you need to take to ensure that you receive all of the benefits you've earned from each system. Reciprocity refers to an agreement between CalPERS and many other California public retirement systems that allows members to move from one retirement system to another within a specified time limit and possibly retain some valuable benefit rights, such as you highest average pay in the calculation of your retirement. Read our publication "When You Change Retirement Systems" for more information. If you have Social Security or other non-CalPERS benefits coming later after retirement, you might want to temporarily increase your monthly CalPERS income until those benefits begin. See if temporary annuity is right for you by reading our "Temporary Annuity" publication. >> Moving on to six months. If you have not already done so, it's time to think about obtaining a CalPERS generated estimated by completing the "Retirement Allowance Estimate Request" form and mailing it to the address on the form. If you have special compensation reported to us, it may not all be included because CalPERS can only project out your average base pay. You determine how you want your taxes withheld. You should check with your tax consultant or attorney to find out about the taxability of your overall retirement income. You can also find more information from the Internal Revenue Service, IRS, and the California Franchise Tax Board representatives. If you plan on moving out of state, you are not required to pay California State taxes; however, you should check with the state that you're moving to to find out what taxes that they require. CalPERS representatives cannot offer tax advice. >> Next on our list is four to five months from retirement. You want to become familiar with the information needed to apply for retirement in the publication "A Guide to Completing Your CalPERS Service Retirement Election Application." Begin to gather and make copies of the required documents you'll need, such as marriage licenses or a birth certificate for a lifetime beneficiary. Remember, only send CalPERS copies of these documents; never send the originals. Always include your social security number or CalPERS ID on every document you submit. Refer to the retirement publication for a complete list of required documents. If you apply for retirement online, you'll be able to directly upload your documents into the system. Although an appointment isn't required, if after taking the "Planning Your Retirement" class, you have specific questions about your own situation that weren't answered during the class, you can come see us. You can schedule an appointment by logging into my|CalPERS. You find the Schedule & Appointment link under the Education Resources tab. >> Now, we're three to four months prior to your retirement. Make sure to complete your retirement application form. Even if you plan to apply online, you can use the application forms to collect all of the important information that you'll need. If you plan on submitting the retirement application form by mail or in person at one of our regional offices, you'll also want to complete the "Direct Deposit Authorization" form to ensure that your monthly benefit payments are securely deposited into your financial institution. This form is also contained in the "Retirement Application" publication. >> And now we're at three months. Three months prior to retiring is the time you want to actually submit your application. A great new feature in my|CalPERS is that you can now apply for retirement online through you're my|CalPERS account. It's important to remember that we cannot accept your application, either online or in physical form, until you're within three months of your retirement date. Send you completed notarized "Service Retirement Election Application" form and any other applicable forms to CalPERS at the address shown on the bottom of the forms. Be sure you keep a copy of all forms and supporting documents for your records and future reference. Apply timely. Any delay in submitting your application could result in a delay of your first retirement check. If you have a deferred compensation plan, such as a 401K or a 457 Plan, check with your Plan Administrator regarding distribution of your funds. Contact your Health Benefits officer or Personnel Office to determine your eligibility for continuation of health, dental or vision coverage into retirement. Look into whether any optional deductions coming out of your active paycheck can continue into retirement, such as retiree association fees, car payments, charitable contributions, things of this nature. You'll need to contact the organization receiving your payments to set these up. After you submit your retirement application, CalPERS will send you a confirmation letter within 5 to 10 business days. Prior to your first full retirement check, you'll receive a letter providing you with the date of your first retirement check, the amount you'll receive and tax information. If you have CalPERS health coverage, the letter will also have information regarding these benefits. You should keep this letter, along with other CalPERS information you may have with your other important financial papers. >> So the next question is what happens after you retire? If you applied timely, in most cases, you should receive your first retirement check around the first part of the month following your retirement date. If you did not retire on the first of the month, your check will cover the period from your retirement date to the end of the month. After that, your check is mailed or direct deposited right around the first of the month. You can find a list of mailing and direct deposit dates at CalPERS On-line. The amount of your retirement check will reflect the payroll and service credit information posted to your account at the time you're retirement benefit was calculated. Once your employer reports all final payroll information, you may receive an adjustment to your retirement check that is retroactive to your retirement date. Please allow six months for all final payroll to be processed and adjustments to be made. >> So let's go over some tools and resources CalPERS members have available to them. One of the greatest resources we offer is CalPERS On-line at www.CalPERS.ca.gov. Most services available do not require a username or password. You can use the service credit cost estimator to get an estimate of the cost for several different types of service credit purchases. The retirement estimate calculator allows you to calculate your retirement allowance. If you use the version in my|CalPERS, which we will cover in a few moments, it can pre-populate some of the information for you. Additional tools for those with CalPERS health benefits are the Health Plan Chooser and the Health Plan Search by Zip Code tools. And you can find additional information through the CalPERS Forms & Publications Center. Other resources include the "PERSpective Newsletter", which is available to all CalPERS members three times a year, which can be viewed online and provides valuable CalPERS information and updates. You can sign up for the various email subscriptions we offer. The Press Alerts notifies you when CalPERS issues a press release. "CalPERS News" is an informational newsletter that's sent out twice a month. "Employer News" provides information and events updates related to employers. And keep an eye out for the "New Member Education Bulletin", which will provide information related to upcoming webinars, instructor-led classes and other educational offerings. My|CalPERS is your gateway to conducting business electronically with CalPERS through a safe and secure environment. We encourage you to use this tool to access real-time details of your CalPERS accounts. The subjects are related to retirement, health if you have health benefits through CalPERS, education, your profile and contacting us through the Message Center. When you first log into my|CalPERS, you'll come to the home page. On the home page, you'll find the CalPERS Account Summary, which provides you with the information on your accounts total balance, total service credit as of the most recent payroll reported by your employer. You may also access your most recent "Annual Member Statements" from here. Next, we have the Retirement tab. This is where you'll find the retirement summary that includes a breakdown of your contributions, plus interest, your membership status and your retirement formula. At some point, you may need to request a letter to verify your account balance. You can now print this document automatically and you can even address it to an outside organization, such as a landlord or mortgage company. If you select the Statements link, you'll have access to past Annual Member Statements" or, once retired, your check statements. You'll also find the Retirement Estimate Calculator link here, which pre-populates with your most current information and you can save them for review at a later date. When you're ready, you can now apply for retirement directly online. Next is the Health tab. For those of you who have CalPERS health benefits, the Health Plan Summary page provides information about your medical plan, the coverage type, when you were enrolled and your premium. At the bottom, you'll find your subscriber information, as well as a list of any dependents you have enrolled on your plan. If you don't have your health benefits through CalPERS, this page will not show. Education Resources is up next. Under this tab, you'll find our Resource Center. Here you can take classes online or enroll in an instructor-led class, held by our regional offices located throughout the state. You may also schedule an appointment, access the Publication Center to order various forms and publications and download the latest "PERSpective Newsletter." On the right, you can access CalPERS videos about retirement planning and much more. Under the Profile tab, we house your contact information. This is where you'll be able to review and update your address, email and phone numbers. You can change your password and let us know your mailing preferences. If you're an active employee, you'll still need to update this information with your employer as well. And this brings us to our last tab, which is the Message Center. In the Message Center, you can submit an inquiry to CalPERS. Because your request comes from a secured source behind your username and password, in most cases, we will be able to provide a more personalized response. When we answer your inquiry, you'll be notified by email that you have a message waiting in my|CalPERS. Simply log in to view the answer. Along with the CalPERS On-line and my|CalPERS, a great way of keeping up with the latest information is with the use of social networking. You can now follow us on Twitter and like us at Facebook. You can also find great informational videos by going to the Video Center on our website. All of our video content is published to the CalPERS YouTube channel. On YouTube, you can subscribe to our videos, share them and embed them in your own sites. >> We already mentioned one of the best ways to contact CalPERS, which is using the Message Center in my|CalPERS. Now we'll review some additional ways to contact us. If you have a general question, you can send it through CalPERS On-line. You find this service through the Contact Us link in the upper right corner of our website. It's important to remember that with this method, we can only provide general information. We cannot provide detailed account information. You can contact CalPERS by mail. When corresponding with CalPERS by mail, you should include your CalPERS ID or Social Security number. Keep in mind that the average response time is approximately 30 to 60 days. In some inquiries, which require additional research may take longer. You can call CalPERS at 888-CalPERS, that's 888-225-7377. For 24-hour service, you can try the CalPERS automated phone system. Most questions can be answered in a few simple steps. Our CalPERS representatives are available from 8:00-5:00 Monday through Friday and in most cases, they can assist you in a single call. The busiest times to call CalPERS are the first of the month, Mondays and the day after a holiday. And we now offer a callback feature so that you can avoid waiting on hold. Finally, you can visit a regional office. We have eight regional offices located throughout the state, where staff will assist you with a variety of services and educational events. We do have walk-in appointments available, but you may have a long wait. To help minimize your wait time, you can pre-schedule an appointment through my|CalPERS. Appointments can fill up over a month in advance, so it's important to plan ahead. Before visiting our offices, we have some suggestions to help you get the most out of your time with us. Take CalPERS classes and check out our online retirement planning tools, read and complete any necessary forms or applications to the best of your ability and bring any supporting documents if needed. Most importantly, write down a list of any specific questions that you may have. Our presentation today was intended to give you a basic knowledge of the steps you'll need to prepare prior to retiring. We hope this information has been beneficial to you. Before you sign off today, we have a short survey we'd like you to complete. Please answer all of the questions, as it is important for us to get feedback to help us improve these presentations. Thank you for taking time out of your day to attend this webinar and have a great day.