RS Plan Timing for Requesting Benefit Projections and Annual Statement Release

As the final months of 2017 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.

For employees deciding whether to retire in 2017 or 2018
For requests involving both 2017 and 2018 calculation dates (for participants wishing to compare results for more than one retirement date), benefits administrators (BAs) should run projections on the Employee Benefits website in early October. If the projection tool indicates that a special (manual) calculation is necessary, requests for 2017 and 2018 projections should be submitted using the “Special Request” link no later than October 23. Please provide any special handling instructions in the comment section of the special request.

Once completed, both the 2017 and 2018 projections will be emailed to the BA at the same time. In some cases, the co-op will need to provide additional compensation information to complete the projection requests.

Except for participants with a birthday in January, manual calculation requests involving both 2017 and 2018 calculation dates will be limited to two calculations. In order to understand how their change in age affects their benefits, participants with January birthdays should request two January calculations.

In late December, following the announcement of the 2018 lump sum interest rates by the regulatory agencies, NRECA will update the RS Plan projection calculator and alert BAs that they may visit the Employee Benefits website to run updated 2018 projections for participants and submit manual calculation requests as needed.

For employees requesting an RS Plan benefit projection for either 2017 or 2018
BAs should follow the same process outlined above to run projections for participants. Special requests requiring manual calculations involving only 2018 retirement dates will be held until after requests for manual calculations for participants with 2017 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 2018. However, RS Plan participants with qualified domestic relations orders, employment at more than one participating co-op or who potentially are affected by other special circumstances will receive their statements later (beginning in mid- to late April.)

Preparing your employees
In preparing for retirement, employees may approach their BAs with questions about their RS Plan benefit distribution options. NRECA has drafted an email template for BAs to use when educating 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 education 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. 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.