Missouri State Employees' Retirement System, Jefferson City, will issue lump-sum payments to 3,748 former employees who are vested in the plan and have yet to retire as the result of an offer earlier this year, spokeswoman Candy Smith said.
The $9 billion pension fund's offer, whose window closed Nov. 30, went to about 17,000 former state employees who are vested in the pension plan but have yet to receive benefits, and left their positions on or after Sept. 1, 2002, and before July 1 of this year. The offer was made possible by Missouri state legislation passed earlier this year.
The lump-sum payments will reduce the pension fund's total liability by more than $86 million and reduce its net liability by more than $34 million, a news release from MOSERS said. The pension fund estimates that the payments will save more than $90 million in employer contributions, with first-year savings of about $2.5 million.
The average monthly retirement benefit of those to whom the lump-sum offer was made was $450, and the average potential lump-sum payment would be $18,450. For the roughly 22% who took the offer, the average monthly benefit is $380, and the average lump-sum payment will be $14,044.
MOSERS currently offers an ongoing lump-sum offer to former employees who are vested, are not within five years of receiving benefits and left MOSERS between Oct. 1, 1984, and Sept. 1, 2002.
As of June 30, MOSERS' actuarial value of assets was $9.02 billion, while liabilities totaled $13.72 billion, for a funding ratio of 65.7%, according to the pension fund's most recent annual report.
