Service Purchase & Transfer

Service Purchase or Transfer Calculation and Process

In calculating your monthly retirement benefit as a Membership Tier 1, 2 or 3 DB Member, one factor used is Credited Service and during your career and participation in one of our Plans, you accumulate service. As a contributing member of CORP, you have the ability to purchase or transfer certain types of credited service; however, there may be limitations on when and how much service you can purchase. 

While the calculation for the cost to purchase or transfer credited service is determined based on your Membership Tier, both computations are calculated based on a present value using the assumed earnings rate, or discount rate based on the 10-year treasury plus 2%, but for a transfer, it is then transferred at market value.  These calculations take into account several actuarial assumptions and demographic factors, examples include assumptions on mortality, years of service already on account, annual salary, your age, amount of time you are seeking to redeem/transfer, how close you are to major retirement milestones (i.e., 20 years of credited service, 25 years of credited service) and since the cost to purchase or transfer credited service is contingent upon several factors, the cost will vary from member to member.  Additionally, both service purchase and transfer calculations are reviewed and updated at minimum, annually.

In order to make an official request for CORP to calculate the cost of a service purchase or transfer, fill out the proper form and send it in to CORP.  The form can be found by going to our Forms and Resources page and scrolling down to the Service Purchase/Transfer section.  Official quotes calculated and obtained by the System provide you with the cost of the redemption and the requirements to fulfill your request.  Failure to comply with the instructions may result in a new request required by you and the cost to purchase or transfer the credited service may change.

To view the following table from a mobile device, click here:

*The ability to transfer your time between other retirement plans into your current plan is dependent on the position(s) held in those previous plans.

Service Purchase Estimator 

Our Service Purchase Estimator is an Excel spreadsheet that will allow you to receive an estimate of what it would cost to purchase eligible service.  (This spreadsheet does not provide an estimate for a transfer – you will need to complete the appropriate form for a transfer estimate.)  Once you open the spreadsheet, you may see a Security Warning at the top that says, “SECURITY WARNING–Some active content has been disabled. Click for more details. Enable Content.” Click the “Enable Content” button in order to use the spreadsheet.

In order to run an estimate, fill out the information requested in the yellow cells.  The information requested includes your plan, tier, employer, birth date, current annual salary, current years of service (as of today), and number of years of service you would like to purchase.  

The spreadsheet will use that information to provide an estimate of what it would cost you to purchase time today.  The estimated cost will display in cell H24 of the spreadsheet.  This is an estimate only.  To receive an official cost quote, submit a Service Purchase/Transfer Form to PSPRS, and we will then use your actual data to calculate the true cost of the service purchase.

Payment Options

In the official quote provided by the System, you will be given options to purchase or transfer the eligible credited service by a lump-sum payment, transfer from a qualified Plan, payments through an irrevocable, after-tax* payroll deduction agreement (PDA) through your employer, and/or by a combination of these options.  Failure to comply with the instructions may result in a new request required by you and the cost to purchase or transfer the credited service may change.

*After-tax means that the PDA payments have already been taxed by your employer.

Additional Resources

For additional resources, Plan summary, guide books and forms, you may access our Forms & Resources webpage and for the latest news and information, we encourage you to Sign Up for News and Updates.  To estimate future benefits, you may access your Members Only online account, or contact your Local Board for an estimate, or retirement packet.  If you are not certain who the Local Board contact person is, please Contact Us, or visit our Applying for Benefits webpage for retirement information.