Founded | July 18, 1917 |
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Headquarters | 5 North 5th Street Harrisburg, Pennsylvania |
Key people | Terrill (Terri) J. Sancez, Executive Director Benjamin L. Cotton, Chief Investment Officer |
Total assets | $72.8 billion[1] (June 30, 2023) |
Website | http://www.psers.pa.gov |
The Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) is a pension fund for public school employees in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Eligible members include all full-time public school employees, part-time hourly public school employees who render at least 500 hours of service in the school year, and part-time per diem public school employees who render at least 80 days of service in the school year in any of the 770 reporting entities in Pennsylvania.[2]
As of June 30, 2023[update], the System had nearly 251,000 active, 250,000 retired, and 27,000 vested inactive members, with an estimated annual active payroll of $15.3 billion. The annuitant membership as of June 30, 2023[update] is over 250,000 retirees and beneficiaries who receive over $552 million in pension and healthcare benefits each month. The average yearly benefit paid to annuitants is $26,197.[2]
Under the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Code, the PSERS pension plan is classified as a 401(a), governmental defined benefit plan. A defined benefit plan means that your retirement benefit is determined by a formula which includes a retirement factor, years of credited service, and the final average salary.[3] PSERS’ role expanded upon the passage of Act 5 of 2017 to include oversight of two new classes consisting of defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) components and a stand-alone DC class.