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SEPTEMBER 2017

TRSL Board of Trustees Special Elections: District 1 & Superintendents

Voting closes 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, September 12

Eligible TRSL members actively working in District 1 or as superintendents have until 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, September 12 to vote for their TRSL Board of Trustees representative.

DISTRICT 1 (Special Election) includes actively working members employed in the parishes of Ascension, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, and St. John.

SUPERINTENDENTS (Special Election) includes actively working members employed as parish/city superintendents of public schools in Louisiana.

Eligible members can vote online at trsl-active.everyonecounts.com or by calling 1-866-829-0160.

Misplaced your PIN or need voting assistance?
Contact the Everyone Counts Help Desk at 1-888-492-4763.

Get your retirement questions answered!

Check out our new webinar series! Each one features a series of 30-minute webinars covering exactly what you need to know based on where you are in your career.

EARLY CAREER (for members with 0-10 years of TRSL service credit)
MID-CAREER (for members with 10-20 years of TRSL service credit)
RETIREMENT READY (for members within 5 years of retirement)

Or sign up for an upcoming individual phone counseling session… time slots are still available, but they fill up fast!

2017 Legislative Session wrap-up

During this year's Regular Session, TRSL monitored 11 pieces of legislation directly impacting the system. The following legislation gained final passage:

Return to work:

Act 15 (Rep. Blake Miguez) adds school nurses, as defined in R.S. 17:28, to the list of “re-employment eligible positions” that allow retirees to return to work and continue to receive a benefit check (after the required waiting period), subject to a 25% of annual benefit earnings limitation.

Act 120 (Rep. Frank Hoffmann) adds school psychologists to the list of critical shortage positions in which a retiree can return to work without a reduction of benefits (after the required waiting period). Additionally, the following retirees are subject to a 36-month waiting period before returning to work:

- retirees who retire on or after July 1, 2017, and whose retirement benefit was actuarially reduced or was calculated at an accrual rate lower than 2.5%

The new, longer waiting period does not apply to the following individuals:

- those who retired before July 1, 2017

- retirees with advanced degrees in speech therapy, speech pathology, or audiology, OR

- those who retired on or after July 1, 2017 and whose benefit was not actuarially reduced or was not calculated at a benefit factor lower than 2.5%

Re-employment within the applicable waiting period will result in the suspension of TRSL benefits until completion of the waiting period or the end of re-employment, whichever occurs first.

Correction of enrollment errors:

Act 285 (Sen. Barrow Peacock) allows for the correction of enrollment errors for persons enrolled in incorrect public retirement systems.

TRSL board membership:

Act 366 (Rep. Kevin J. Pearson) clarifies the legislative staff’s rights and duties in attending executive sessions of the state and statewide retirement system boards, particularly with respect to lawyer-client privilege. This legislation also prohibits any person found in violation of the Code of Governmental Ethics for actions involving the misuse of public funds from serving as a trustee on a state or statewide retirement system board for elections or appointments made on or after July 1, 2017.

Investment reporting:

Senate Resolution 123 (Sen. John Milkovich) requests that state systems post certain investment reports to their official websites.

Social Security offsets:

Senate Concurrent Resolution 22 (Sen. Beth Mizell) asks Congress to consider eliminating the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) Social Security benefit reductions.

Other legislative action

The legislature also held two special sessions focusing on the state’s budgetary and fiscal matters, during which there were no retirement-related bills filed.

For more information on other bills monitored or passed during this year's Regular Session, visit TRSL’s Legislation webpage.

What happens to your sick leave when you retire?

Unused sick leave is an important part of your retirement planning as it can increase your monthly benefit when converted to service credit. State law governs the accrual, determination, and conversion of unused sick leave to service credit for retirement purposes.

Here’s some more helpful info about sick leave:

Unused sick leave credit cannot be used to attain eligibility for retirement. Eligibility must first be attained then unused sick leave credit is used to calculate the final amount of your retirement benefit. Unused sick leave credit earned after June 30, 1990 is capped at one (1.00) year.
At their discretion, your employer may pay you up to 25 days of unused sick leave at your daily rate of pay upon retiring or entering DROP. The balance of your unused sick leave days (which is eligible for conversion to service credit) will be reduced by the number of sick leave days paid to you by your employer.
Once you submit an official application for retirement or retirement after DROP, TRSL will request from your employer(s) any unreported sick leave records. Employers are encouraged to report your actual sick leave days used annually to TRSL.
When finalizing your retirement benefit, TRSL will include all of your eligible sick leave credit into the benefit calculation. TRSL will notify you if you have any remaining unused sick leave credit eligible for purchase.

NOTE: Members often assume that the sick leave balance they have accumulated with their employer determines how much is eligible for conversion to retirement credit. However, the amount of unused sick leave eligible for conversion is determined instead by a formula specified in state law.

For additional information regarding sick leave conversion to service credit, please see Sick Leave & Conversion to Service Credit, available in TRSL’s Brochures webpage.

Submission of beneficiary forms

Once you complete beneficiary forms, you should submit them directly to TRSL. If your employer offers to submit these forms on your behalf, it is important you make sure they do so in a timely manner to avoid these potential consequences:

Beneficiary forms received by TRSL after your date of death are null and void per statute.

Benefit payments may not be paid in accordance to your most recent intentions. TRSL will make payment to your estate or in accordance with the last beneficiary form on file with TRSL.

Your beneficiaries could experience unnecessary delays in benefit payments, significant legal expenses, and/or unexpected tax consequences.

You can view your beneficiary information through Member Access. If you need to update your beneficiary designation, complete a Beneficiary Designation for Non-Retired Members (Form 3) and submit it directly to TRSL.