SUNY Bulletin No. SU-255

Subject
Two-Year Look Back for Tier 6 SUNY TIAA Optional Retirement Plan (ORP)
Date Issued
December 20, 2017

Purpose

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

Affected Employees

Tier 6 SUNY employees with a Retirement Plan type of 7Z (TIAA)

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. Effective with the first checks in April 2013, 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.

SUNY and State Education Department

Benefit Plan Description

T6S030 TIAA SUNY TIER 6 3PCT
T6S035 TIAA SUNY TIER 6 3.5PCT
T6S045 TIAA SUNY TIER 6 4.5PCT
T6S575 TIAA SUNY TIER 6 5.75PCT
T6S060 TIAA SUNY TIER 6 6PCT

Effective Date(s)

Effective December 14, 2017 for paychecks dated January 10, 2018 (Institution Lag)

Eligibility Criteria

Tier 6 TIAA members who enrolled in the ORP between April 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014

Agency Actions

Each SUNY campus 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 December 22, 2017 and December 29, 2017 to affect the check of January 10, 2018.

The public query, SUNY_TIER6_2YR_LKBK_SUM_PROMPT will provide employee’s earnings based on a calendar year. The query will prompt for:

  • Calendar Year – Enter 2016
  • Department ID – Enter 5 Digit Department ID
  • Coverage Elect Date (Greater than) – Enter 3/31/2012
  • Coverage Elect Date (Less than) – Enter 1/1/2015

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 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.