RS Plan Timeline for Requesting Benefit Projections and Annual Statements
As the final months of 2016 approach, many cooperative employees who are eligible for full or quasi-retirement will be requesting benefit projections from the Retirement Security (RS) Plan. To ensure timely and accurate completion of these requests, please be aware of the following timeline.
Timing for submitting RS Plan benefit projection requests
- For employees deciding whether to retire in 2016 or 2017—For requests involving both 2016 and 2017 calculation dates (for participants wishing to compare results for more than one retirement date), benefits administrators should run projections on the Employee Benefits website in October. If the projection tool indicates that a special (manual) calculation is necessary, requests for 2016 and 2017 projections should be submitting using the “Special Request” link no later than November 1.
Once completed, the 2016 and 2017 projections will be emailed to the benefits administrator at the same time. Generally, manual requests will be fulfilled within four weeks of submission. However, participants affected by special circumstances may experience a four-to-six-week turnaround time due to the need for manual calculations and, in some cases, additional compensation information will need to be provided by the co-op.
Except for participants with a birthday in January, manual calculation requests involving both 2016 and 2017 calculation dates will be limited to two calculations. Participants with January birthdays may want two January calculations to understand how their change in age impacts their benefits.
- In late December, following the announcement of the 2017 lump sum interest rates, the RS Plan projection calculator will be updated. At that time, benefits administrators may visit the Employee Benefits website to run updated 2017 projections for participants and submit manual calculation requests as needed.
- For employees requesting RS Plan benefit projections for either 2016 or 2017—Benefits administrators should follow the same process outlined above to run projections for participants. Special requests requiring manual calculations involving only 2017 retirement dates will be held until after requests for manual calculations for participants with 2016 retirement dates have been completed.
A note about quasi-retirements
Individuals seeking to quasi-retire must notify NRECA on or before the date they plan to quasi-retire; however, benefit distribution paperwork for quasi-retirement does not need to be completed and processed before the benefit determination date.
Timing for annual statements
The distribution of RS Plan annual statements to most participants will be early April 2017. RS Plan participants with qualified domestic relations orders, employment at more than one participating cooperative or who potentially are affected by other special circumstances will receive their statements in soon thereafter.
Preparing your employees
In preparing for retirement, employees may approach their benefit administrators with questions about their RS Plan benefit distribution options. NRECA has drafted an email template for benefits advisors to use when advising retirement-eligible employees about the timeline for requesting end-of-year benefit projections from the RS Plan. NRECA has developed Answers You Need: Weighing Your RS Plan Payment Options, a flier that can help participants evaluate their available options. Additionally, RS Plan participants have access to the Personal Investment & Retirement Consulting (PIRC) team. A PIRC team member can provide personalized guidance to co-op employees and can be reached via email at pirc@nreca.coop or by phone at 866.673.2299, option 6.
Questions
As always, we are here to help you. Please contact your field representative for specific questions or concerns. Representatives in NRECA’s Member Contact Center are available Monday through Friday, 7 am – 7 pm, Central Time at 866.673.2299 or via email at contactcenter@nreca.coop.