Employee Retirement Information
This is a summary. For detailed information on retirement, visit the Florida Retirement System (FRS) website at www.myfrs.com or call (866) 446-9377 to speak with an FRS representative.
All documents are in PDF format.
Retiree Benefits
How is Retirement Funded?
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Pinellas County pays the majority of the FRS retirement plan savings, and employees contribute 3% of their pretax pay towards the plan.
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In addition, the County makes a separate contribution to the Health Insurance Subsidy (HIS) fund. The HIS pays eligible retirees a monthly benefit for each year of service to a maximum of 30 years. The subsidy helps offset the costs of purchasing health insurance once you have retired. Currently, this amount is $5.00 per month per year of FRS service (for example, $100 per month for an employee who retires after 20 years).
When Can I Retire?
How many years does it take to be vested?
Currently, the FRS Investment Plan has a one (1) year vesting period and the FRS Pension Plan has an eight (8) year vesting period. (If you enrolled in the FRS prior to July 1, 2011, you only need 6 years of service to be vested in your Pension Plan benefit.) An employee is always fully vested in their 3% annual contribution.
What is normal retirement?
Normal retirement occurs when you retire with full (unreduced) benefits based on your age and/or length of service. To be eligible for normal retirement under the Pension Plan, an employee must meet one of the following age and service requirements:
- Age 65 with 8 years of creditable service (or if you were hired prior to July 1, 2011: age 62 with 6 years of service)
- Any age with 33 years of creditable service (or if you were hired prior to July 1, 2011: 30 years)
What about early retirement?
You can retire any time after you are vested and within 20 years of your normal retirement age. The normal retirement benefit is reduced 5% for each year that you are under the normal retirement age of 65 and do not have 33 or more years of service.
Retirement Plans
Employees have a choice of two FRS retirement plans:
- Pension Plan
- Investment Plan
Employees must make an election during their CHOICE period as to which plan they want to participate in.
Pension Plan
- An employee in the Pension Plan is vested upon completing eight (8) years of creditable service.
- The Pension Plan provides a fixed benefit based on a formula which factors in your highest eight (8) years of compensation and your total years of creditable service.
- It also has an annual cost of living increase.
- For full details, visit www.myfrs.com.
Investment Plan
- An employee in the Investment Plan is vested upon completion of one (1) year of creditable service.
- The retirement benefit is the value in the employee's account. You elect how to allocate the funds among the investment plans offered.
- Unlike the Pension Plan, there is no fixed benefit level.
- Your future retirement benefit may be greater or less than the Pension Plan benefit depending on the performance of your individual investment options. However, a guaranteed lifetime payment option can be purchased and is available with annual 3% benefit increases, the same as the Pension Plan.
- The Investment Plan permits rollovers from other qualified plans, such as IRA's, 403(b), 401(a), and 401(k).
- If you leave FRS covered employment, you may choose to leave your account invested in the Plan or roll it over to an IRA or another employer's qualified plan.
- For full details, visit www.myfrs.com.
DROP
- The Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) is a Pension Plan program through which you may retire and have your monthly retirement benefits remain in the Florida Retirement System (FRS) Trust Fund instead of being paid directly to you.
- With DROP, you accumulate retirement benefits while you continue to work for up to 60 months (5 years).
- When the DROP period ends, you terminate employment, receive payment of the accumulated DROP benefits, and begin receiving your FRS monthly retirement benefits.
- Get answers to all of your Frequently Asked Questions about DROP plus a list of valuable resources.
New Retirees
- See Information for New Retirees including:
- Downloadable forms for direct deposit, health insurance subsidy and tax withholding
- When do I get my retirement check?
- How to report changes in personal information such as a new address
- REPCO monthly meetings
Create FRS Account
- A Florida Retirement System (FRS) online account is useful to create customized estimates of monthly pension benefits, calculate investment plan account value, view retirement workshop presentations, access forms, etc.
- Get step-by-step instructions to create an online FRS account including how to retrieve a forgotten PIN.
Planning for Retirement
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