How we calculate PSERS estimates

We couldn't download Pennsylvania's retirement law (24 Pa.C.S. Part IV), so every rule here comes from PSERS's own booklets and web pages, not the law itself.

We follow PSERS's publications. Where they and the law differ, the law wins.

For a 55/25 retirement (57/25 in T-G), PSERS cuts the benefit 1/4% for each month you are short of normal retirement. Its booklets don't say exactly how those months are counted.

We count the months until you would have met a normal retirement rule if you had kept working, and count a part month as a whole month. This matches PSERS's own sample retiree (60 months, 15%).

Ordinary early retirement (not 55/25) is reduced by actuarial factors PSERS doesn't publish.

We show the unreduced amount as an upper limit and don't guess the cut. Ask PSERS for an estimate.

Options 1, 2, 3 and 4 reduce your check by factors that depend on your age and your survivor's age (and gender). PSERS doesn't publish them.

We show the Maximum Single Life Annuity as the upper limit. If you have a PSERS estimate, you can enter its factor.

PSERS doesn't publish how much withdrawing your contributions cuts your check. In its sample estimate, every option drops by the same share: the amount withdrawn divided by the account's Present Value.

We use that share only when you enter the Present Value from your own PSERS estimate.

An older PSERS handbook (2014) and older summaries of the 2010 law suggest only Class T-C and T-D members can take out their contributions at retirement. PSERS's current exit counseling deck says any member may.

We follow the current deck: every DB class may withdraw, and for T-E to T-H it can leave little or no monthly benefit.

The law may cap the pension for Classes T-E to T-H at a share of final average salary. No PSERS booklet we have states it.

We apply no cap.

PSERS doesn't say whether the Rule of 92 (or 97) counts your age in whole years or in years and months.

We count years and months, with service to the fraction of a year.

The handbook says T-C and T-D members reach normal retirement at 'age 62'. PSERS's web page says 'age 62 with 1 year of service'.

We require 1 year of service at 62.

Class T-D earns 2.5% for school service but 2.0% for non-school service (and for any Class T-C years). PSERS doesn't say whether T-F has a similar split.

The calculator lets T-D members enter years at 2.0%. Other classes use one multiplier.

The $100-a-month Premium Assistance cap comes from PSERS's 2014 retiree handbook. The current web page says only that the legislature sets the amount.

We show up to $100 a month, labeled as needing a check.

The 2014 handbook says 'age 62 or older on your date of termination'. The current web page also requires a retirement date after that age and counts eligibility points.

We use the current web page's wording.

PSERS's Retired Member Handbook is dated March 2014, before Classes T-G and T-H existed. Rules that appear only there may be out of date.

We label facts taken only from it.

Our projected dates step forward a month at a time from your retirement date, so a birthday in the middle of a month shows up on the next step.

Dates may be a few weeks later than PSERS's. Ask PSERS for your exact superannuation date.