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Eligibility
You will be eligible for a service retirement benefit when you reach age 55 and have five or more years of credited member service. If you are a Tier 3 member, you may retire under Article 14 or Article 15. However, your benefit, in most cases, will be greater under Article 15.
For the full retirement benefit, you must be 62 years old at retirement or, if you have 30 years of credited service, you may retire as early as age 55. With less than 30 years of service, you may retire as early as age 55, but you will receive a reduced benefit.
The Benefit
- If you retire with less than 20 years of service credit, your benefit will equal 1.66 percent of your Final Average Salary (FAS) for each year of service.
- With 20 to 30 years of service credit, your benefit will equal 2 percent of your FAS, multiplied by your years of credited service.
- For each year of credited service beyond 30 years, you will receive 1.5 percent of your FAS.
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Examples:
| At age 62, with 19 years of service and an FAS of $35,000: | |
| $35,000 × 1.66% × 19 years = | $11,039 per year or $920 per month |
| At age 62, with 20 years of service and an FAS of $35,000: | |
| $35,000 × 2% × 20 years = | $14,000 per year or $1,167 per month |
| At age 62, with 31 years of service and an FAS of $35,000: | |
| $35,000 × 2% × 30 years = | $21,000 per year |
| plus | |
| $35,000 × 1.5% × 1 year = | $525 per year |
| = | $21,525 per year or $1,794 per month |
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Estimate Your Pension
Most members can estimate their pension using the benefit calculator in Retirement Online. The calculator uses your salary and service credit information to create an estimate. You can fine-tune your estimate by entering different retirement dates, beneficiaries, earnings, and service credit amounts to see how they affect your potential benefit, and then save or print it. Sign in to your Retirement Online account, go to the ‘My Account Summary’ area of your Account Homepage and click the “Estimate my Pension Benefit” button.
Members in certain circumstances (for example, members who have recently transferred a membership to NYSLRS) are not able to use the Retirement Online calculator at this time. These members should contact us to request an estimate.
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Filing
Your service retirement application must be on file with the Office of the State Comptroller at least 15 days, but not more than 90 days, before the date on which your retirement will occur. The 15-day filing requirement is waived if you are over age 70 at retirement.
To apply for retirement, sign in to your Retirement Online account, go to the ‘My Account Summary’ area of your Account Homepage and click “Apply for Retirement.” You can also apply by mail by submitting the Application for Service Retirement (RS6037).
Read the Receiving Your Benefits section for more information about filing.