State Agencies Bulletin No. 1539

Subject
Two-Year Look Back for Tier 6 TIAA Voluntary Defined Contribution (VDC)
Date Issued
January 6, 2017

Purpose

To provide agencies with instructions on how to update a Tier 6 employee’s Retirement Plan page due to the VDC two-year look back.

Affected Employees

New York State employees who joined the workforce on or after July 1, 2013 and who were deemed non-unionized (non-represented or exempt), with an annual salary of $75,000.00 or greater

Background

On March 16, 2012, the Governor signed legislation creating Tier 6. This tier applies to employees joining a retirement system after March 31, 2012. This Legislation authorized the creation of a new Tier 6 pension plan that included a Voluntary Defined Contribution Plan. (Please refer to Bulletin 1256) Legislation required the employee contribution rate to be based on the employee’s annual wage.

Once a Tier 6 member has reached three years of membership, his or her contribution rate is based on total pensionable earnings from two years prior*.

*Total earnings should include pensionable earnings from all PayServ job records, as well as agencies that are not in PayServ.

The employee contribution rates are:

Wages Contribution Rate
$45,000 or less 3%
$45,000.01 to $55,000 3.5%
$55,000.01 to $75,000 4.5%
$75,000.01 to $100,000 5.75%
More than $100,000 6%

The Benefit Plans and the narrative descriptions are found below.

Note: The variable contribution rates are identified within the description.

Benefit Plan Description
T6V030 TIAA VDC 3PCT
T6V035 TIAA VDC 3.5PCT
T6V045 TIAA VDC 4.5PCT
T6V575 TIAA VDC 5.75PCT
T6V060 TIAA VDC 6PCT

Effective Date(s)

Effective December 29, 2016 for paychecks dated January 25, 2017 (Administration)

Effective January 5, 2017 for paychecks dated February 2, 2017 (Institution)

Eligibility Criteria

Tier 6 TIAA members who enrolled in the VDC between July 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013.

Agency Actions

Each agency is required to update the Retirement Plans page to change the Benefit Plan based on the agency’s review of the “two-year look back” salary. If updates are needed they should be entered in PayServ between:

  • January 6, 2017 and January 13, 2017 for checks of January 25, 2017 (Admin.).
  • January 13, 2017 and January 20, 2017 for checks of February 2, 2017 (Inst.)

The public query, VDC_TWOYR_LOOKBACK_T6_AGY will provide employee’s earnings based on a calendar year. The query will prompt for calendar year, enter 2015. The second prompt will ask for your agency code.

The charts found in the “Background” section of this bulletin should be used to determine if the contribution rate has changed and an update to their Benefit Plan is needed.

The steps to update the Benefit Plan are as follows:

  1. Open the Retirement Plans page. (Home>Benefits>Enroll In Benefits>Retirement Plans).
  2. Enter employee's Empl ID in search box.
  3. Click Search.
  4. Select the correct Empl Rcd # for the corresponding Job Record (if multiple records exist).
  5. Insert a row in the “Coverage” section and enter the payroll period begin date in the Deduction Begin Date field.
  6. Enter the employee’s Date of Membership in the “Election Date” field. The same election date should be carried forward from the previous page.
  7. Select the appropriate Benefit Plan dependent upon the employees’ total annual earnings. (Use the charts provided in the “Background” section to determine the new Benefit Plan)
  8. Save the transaction.

Questions

Questions regarding the VDC two-year look back should be addressed to Dave Morrell at SUNY (518) 320-1430 or [email protected].

Questions regarding the PayServ entry can be directed to the Payroll Retirement Mailbox.