Changes to survivor pension benefits effective April 1

As of April 1, 2019, the calculation for the survivor pension benefit will be changing.

This will only affect those active employees in the DB plan that choose a survivor pension benefit payment option. Some of the changes include: cost of living adjustments; updates to the actuary tables (i.e. using a unisex table instead of presuming all retirees are males and all survivors are females); and decreasing the investment return assumption rate from 8% to 6.75%. In 2017, the school employee’s retirement system implemented similar changes.

All affected members are encouraged to log-in to their MiAccount to compare the benefit under both formulas or you may call Office of Retirement Services at 800-381-5111 to discuss how this change may affect your survivor pension benefit.