Retirement Plan booklet - sdcera

7
Reciprocity
Reciprocity links retirement benefits together when you move from one public
agency to another. Reciprocity exists between SDCERA and many public agencies
in California including CalPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System)
and CalSTRS (California State Teachers Retirement System) to name two of the
most common.
There are legal requirements you
must meet in order to be eligible
for reciprocity:
• You must leave active membership
in one system and enter
active membership in the next
system within six months
• You cannot take a refund from
any reciprocal system
• You must request and establish
reciprocity from the retirement
system you’re leaving
Members may establish incoming or outgoing reciprocity. In fact, some
members have both incoming and outgoing reciprocity because they
continue to move from one public employer to another and each time they
move, they link retirement benefits together. As a reciprocal member, there
are several benefits available to you.
A key benefit of reciprocity is that when your retirement benefit is calculated,
all retirement systems use your highest final compensation to
determine your benefit amount, regardless of which system you were
working in when you earned the highest wage. This usually means that you
are able to maximize the retirement benefit from your first system(s) that
would otherwise be based on an earlier salary (one that’s probably less).
Read more on page 16.
• You must retire from both
retirement systems on the
same date
There are other requirements
and more benefits available
to reciprocal members.
Read the Reciprocity fact sheet
for details.