As a member of Michigan's Public School Employees Retirement System, you are eligible for one of the best public pensions around. We encourage you to explore this website (and ) to learn all about your pension plan.

Your partners in planning.

Throughout your working career, your employer takes care of your pension plan deductions, wage and service records, and plan contributions. Regular reports are sent to ORS to become part of your personal pension record. When it's time to retire, your employer hands off all your final records to ORS, and we become your partner in retirement.

Take charge of your future.

Don't wait! Learn all about your pension, and then develop a plan for retirement so that it is all you hope it will be. Click here to see why planning and saving is so important

The Office of Retirement Services is pleased to announce the publication of the October 2009 issue of Connections, our semiannual retiree newsletter.

Articles in this issue include:

• Study findings

• Message From the Director

• Save resources, stay local

• Calling volunteers

• Ask an Expert

• When to Contact ORS 

• Tracking your assets
   

Published on October 6, 2009

Public Act 617 of 2006, which goes into effect January 1, 2009, permits a retiree to add a new spouse as a survivor pension beneficiary. However, certain conditions and time limits apply.

If you are considering this option you should understand that your pension will be recalculated using the standard actuarial formula which will result in a reduction of your pension.

Read more information about naming a new spouse as a beneficiary after retirement.

Published on December 19, 2008

Public school retirees who have been retired for at least 12 months may be exempt from the earnings limitation if they are working in an approved critical shortage position or for a school that has an approved emergency situation. The earnings are exempt for up to six years or until July 1, 2011, whichever comes first.

Michigan's Department of Education (MDE) publishes the list of critical shortage exceptions each year. To see the 2008-2009 list, navigate to Teacher Shortage Memo on MDE's website.

Published on October 23, 2008

ORS is pleased to present the following new online tutorials:

• How you qualify for your pension
• How your pension is calculated
• How you can take payment of you pension
• How the Equated Plan works

Each tutorial runs between four and nine minutes and provides information you need to be more confident about your retirement decisions. View the tutorials.

Published on June 20, 2008

In an effort to keep our records up-to-date and accurate, we are trying to contact inactive members who may not have a current address on file. If you previously worked for a Michigan public school and are not eligible to receive a pension, you may still have contributions on deposit because of that work and it is important that we have up-to-date contact information for you. See if your name is on our list of people we are attempting to contact.

Published on June 11, 2008