The CalPERS Board of Administration adopted new actuarial assumptions that will go into effect on Dec. 31. The new assumptions will impact service credit purchase costs including:

Additional retirement service credit Military service credit Maternity/Paternity Peace Corp/AmeriCorps service Sabbatical leave of absence Education and service leave of absence

Different actuarial assumptions apply to members in different situations; therefore, it is not possible to anticipate if these changes will result in an increase or a decrease to the cost of purchase. In order to assist employees in determining when they should submit their request to purchase service credit to CalPERS, the Service Credit Cost Estimator on our Web site has been updated to provide costs under both the current and new actuarial assumptions.

To use the service credit cost estimator, use the following steps:

1.      Access CalPERS Web site
2.      Click on “For Members”
3.      Select the employee's current member status
4.      Click on “Next”
5.      Click on “Confirm”
6.      Click on “Service Credit”  
7.      Click on “Service Credit Cost Estimator”
8.      Click on “Create Your Service Credit Cost Estimate”
9.      Follow the prompts to enter the employee's specific information

This cost comparison will only be available through Dec. 30, and service credit purchase requests received by CalPERS before Dec. 31 will be calculated under the current assumptions. Service credit purchase requests received by CalPERS on or after Dec. 31 will be calculated under the new assumptions.

Employees who plan to retire Dec. 31 but elect credit costed under the new factors must be in compensated employment on the date of request. This means their retirement date would have to be changed to January resulting in a COLA delay.