Public Act 92 of 2017, which was signed into law today, discontinues the option to initiate a service credit purchase as of September 29, 2017. This change in the law has no other effect on your pension or retiree healthcare benefits, and it does not affect purchases you’ve already made or tax-deferred payment agreements you may already have in place.

If you’re planning a service credit purchase, full payment for the amount of service you wish to buy or a fully completed Tax-Deferred Payment (TDP) Agreement (R0392C) signed by both you and your employer must be received in our office by 5:00 p.m. EDT, September 29, 2017. Any service credit applications received after that time will not be processed and payments will be refunded appropriately. However, the ability to receive credit for time spent in military service and to reinstate service credit by repaying any refunded pension contributions will remain available to you after that date.

To find out what types of service credit you may be eligible to purchase, the rules, the cost, and how to purchase, our website is your best resource. Go to www.michigan.gov/orsschools and click on Service Credit – Earning and Purchasing.

The best way to find out the cost of buying various types of service credit is to use the tools available in miAccount – log in at www.michigan.gov/orsmiaccount. First, create a pension estimate. The Estimate Pension tool lets you enter any number of “what-if?” scenarios to create multiple estimates. Next, click on Your Service. From there, you can estimate the cost of purchasing Universal Buy-In service credit and various other types. After calculating your cost, click on “When will I recover this cost.” The Breakeven Point for Your Service Purchase calculator uses one of your pension estimates to determine how many years after retiring it would take to recover the cost of your purchase.

Watch for a letter in the mail from our office with more details. If you have any questions after reviewing the resources on our website, log in to miAccount and use our online Message Board for secure, direct access to our representatives.

Sincerely,

Office of Retirement Services