Accumulated contributions
Your member contributions plus the regular interest they have earned.
ACPS
The Alternate Contributory Pension Selection, the TPS rules for members who joined before July 1, 2011.
Average Final Compensation (AFC)
Your average earnable compensation over the 3 (ACPS) or 5 (RCPB) consecutive years that give the highest average.
Basic Allowance
The largest monthly benefit, based on your creditable service and AFC. It is paid for your life only and stops when you die.
Beneficiary
The person or people you name to receive benefits when you die. A contingent beneficiary receives them if every primary beneficiary has died first.
COLA
The cost-of-living adjustment, a yearly increase based on the Consumer Price Index and capped by state law.
Creditable service
The service used to figure how much you get. It includes service earned, service bought, military credit and, if you retire within 30 days of leaving work, unused sick leave.
Early service retirement
A pension that starts before you qualify for a full one (ACPS 55 with 15 years; RCPB 60 with 15 years), cut 0.5% for each month before 62 (ACPS) or 65 (RCPB).
Earnable compensation
Your annual salary rate for working the normal time in your position.
Earnings limitation
After retiring, if you go back to work for the same employer, your pension is cut $1 for each $1 you earn above your AFC minus your yearly Basic Allowance.
Eligibility service
The service that decides when you can retire. You get a full year for any fiscal year with at least 500 regular hours.
Employer pick-up
Your contributions are treated as paid by your employer for federal income tax, so federal tax on them is put off. They are still subject to Maryland income tax.
Fiscal year
July 1 to June 30.
Full cost
The price to buy certain outside service (such as out-of-state public school teaching) in the 12 months before you retire: the extra reserves needed to pay for the added benefit.
Normal cost
The price to buy back withdrawn service, approved unpaid leave or missed service: the contributions you would have paid plus 5% interest compounded yearly.
Normal retirement age
62 for ACPS members, 65 for RCPB members.
Option factor
The number SRA multiplies your Basic Allowance by to get your monthly amount under Options 1-6. It depends on your age and, for survivor options, your beneficiary's age.
Participating employer
A public employer whose employees can be members of a state retirement or pension system.
Pop-up
Under Options 5 and 6, your payment goes back up to the Basic Allowance the month after your beneficiary dies, if they die first.
Qualifying leave of absence
Unpaid leave approved by your employer and SRPS for personal illness, the birth or adoption of a child, temporary work for another government employer, or study.
RCPB
The Reformed Contributory Pension Benefit, the TPS rules for members who joined on or after July 1, 2011.
Retirement coordinator
A staff member at your employer, usually in personnel, trained to help with SRPS forms.
Rule of 90
RCPB members get a full pension when their age plus eligibility service adds up to at least 90.
Social Security Integration Level (SSIL)
The average of the Social Security wage bases over the 35 calendar years before retirement. Only the old Non-Contributory formula uses it.
SRA
The State Retirement Agency, which runs the SRPS. Phone 410-625-5555 or 1-800-492-5909.
SRPS
The Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, which includes the Teachers' Pension System (TPS).
Vested
You have enough service (5 years ACPS, 10 years RCPB) to keep a future pension if you leave before retiring.
No terms match. Try a shorter word.
These are the words you'll meet in SRA letters, on mySRPS and on these pages. To put them to work, try the Maryland TPS calculator, or start with which plan you're in and the formula.
Plain English, not the official wordingThese definitions put the TPS handbooks into everyday words. They aren't SRA's official definitions, and they aren't legal or financial advice. SRA decides your benefit.
Source: SRPS Benefits Handbooks: Teachers' Pension System (Alternate Contributory Pension Selection; Reformed Contributory Pension Benefit), Revised April 2021, ACPS Handbook PDF p. 3, pp. 4, 6, 10, 11, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 30, 33, 35, 38, 39; RCPB Handbook PDF p. 3, pp. 17, 18, 21, 36; ACFR FY2025 p. 164; Options Pamphlet PDF p. 2; SPP § 20-101; SRA option factor table (eff. 1/1/2022). Last reviewed .