$5,000 death benefit
A one-time, taxable lump sum paid to the beneficiary you name when you die after retiring.
These are the words you'll meet on your PSRS statement, in PSRS letters and on these pages. To put them to work, try the PSRS calculator, or start with whether you're in PSRS and the formula.
25-and-Out
Early retirement under age 55 with 25-29.99 years, using a lower benefit factor.
Age-reduction factor
A multiplier applied to the normal formula for early retirement at 55-59.
Basic purchase cost
How PSRS prices most service purchases. Your highest annual salary on record times the current total contribution rate (yours plus your employer's), for each year you buy.
Beneficiary
The person or people (or an organization) you name to receive benefits when you die.
Benefit factor
The percentage set by law (2.5%, 2.55%, or 2.2%-2.4% for 25-and-Out) used in your benefit formula.
Benefit plan
How your lifetime monthly benefit is paid. PSRS has six plans in three groups: Single Life, Joint-and-Survivor and Term-Certain.
Certificated
Holding a valid Missouri educator certificate issued by DESE (not just a substitute or Parents as Teachers certificate).
COLA
A cost-of-living adjustment, a raise in your monthly benefit to help keep up with prices. The PSRS Board decides each one, looking at the CPI-U inflation index.
Contributions
The share of your salary you and your employer each pay into PSRS. Yours comes out of your pay before tax.
CPI-U
The Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers, a monthly inflation measure from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Board looks at it when it sets COLAs.
Critical Shortage Employment
A law letting retirees work for a covered employer that has declared a shortage, for up to 48 months, without losing benefits.
Defined benefit plan
A plan that pays a benefit from a set formula, not from an account balance. PSRS is a defined benefit plan.
Final average salary
The monthly figure used in your benefit formula. Add your three highest years of salary in a row (including health, dental and vision premiums your employer pays for you) and divide by 36.
Insurable interest
A person's financial dependence on you. A spouse, child or parent automatically has one. Your Joint-and-Survivor beneficiary needs one.
Joint-and-Survivor
PSRS plans (100%, 75% or 50%) that pay you a smaller benefit for life, then pay your one beneficiary that share of it for their life.
Missouri public pension exemption
A Missouri income tax rule that may let qualified Missouri residents leave all or part of their PSRS benefit out of their Missouri income.
PEERS
The Public Education Employee Retirement System of Missouri, a separate plan for non-certificated school staff, run by the same board as PSRS.
PLSO
Partial Lump Sum Option, a one-time payment of 12, 24 or 36 months of benefits at retirement in exchange for a lower monthly benefit.
Pop-up
The increase of a Joint-and-Survivor benefit to the Single Life amount if your beneficiary dies first (or, for a spouse, after a qualifying divorce).
Reciprocity
Moving service from one Missouri public retirement system to another, under signed agreements between the systems.
Recognition of service
Counting service in more than one Missouri public education retirement system toward your eligibility and benefit factor.
Reinstatement
Buying back PSRS service you gave up when you took a refund of your contributions.
Rule of 80
Your age plus years of service equals 80 or more, which qualifies you for full benefits.
Rule of 86
Age plus service adding up to 86 or more, one of the ways to qualify for the PLSO.
Salary cap
When PSRS works out your final average salary it ignores raises above a set percentage from one year to the next (10% from 2008-2009 on). Some raises, like a real change of job, don't count against it.
Service
Your years in PSRS-covered work, plus any service you reinstate, buy or transfer. It decides when you can retire and how big your benefit is.
Single Life
The PSRS benefit plan that pays the largest monthly amount for your lifetime only. Monthly payments stop when you die.
Supplemental service
Up to half a year of service you can buy within five years of retirement eligibility, with no prior job or leave needed. It doesn't count toward vesting.
Term-Certain
PSRS plans (120 or 60 months) that pay you a smaller benefit for life and guarantee payments for at least that many months in total.
Termination of employment
The clean break PSRS requires before retirement. No covered work for one month after your retirement date, and no agreement for future covered work until you get your first benefit payment.
Vested
Having at least five years of service, so you're entitled to a future PSRS benefit even if you leave.
No terms match. Try a shorter word.
Plain English, not the official wordingThese definitions put the PSRS Member Handbook into everyday words. They aren't PSRS's official definitions, and they aren't legal or financial advice. PSRS decides your benefit.
Source: PSRS Member Handbook, 2026-2027 (as of September 2026), pp. 20, 26, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 102, 103, 104, 105. Last reviewed .