New Member Guide - Reciprocity

LACERA maintains a special relationship with certain other California public retirement systems. This relationship, known as reciprocity, was established by statute to encourage career public service and to protect retirement benefits earned by employees under two or more systems.

If you worked for another California public retirement system within the last six months, you may be eligible for reciprocal benefits.

Benefits of Reciprocity

Benefits of Reciprocity:

Your years of service earned under the reciprocal system will count toward meeting LACERA's service credit requirements for vesting and retirement.

If you elect Plan D, your contribution rate will be based on your age when you joined the reciprocal system.

Your retirement allowance from both LACERA and the reciprocal system will be based on your higher final compensation, regardless of whether you earned that compensation as a member of LACERA or the reciprocal system. Information regarding Reciprocity is also available in the Benefits section.

Reciprocal Systems

Some reciprocal retirement systems include:

County retirement systems governed by the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937
CalSTRS (California State Teachers' Retirement System)
CalPERS (California Public Employees' Retirement System)
Public retirement systems that have full reciprocity agreements with CalPERS

Reciprocity provisions apply to any member entering LACERA from a reciprocal system, as long as the member meets all of the following conditions:

LACERA date of hire is within six months following the termination of his or her employment with the reciprocal system
Member left his or her plan contributions on deposit in the reciprocal system
Employee's service in the reciprocal system does not overlap with entry into LACERA. Service is considered overlapping when a member terminates service in conjunction with any of the following:
- Leave of Absence
- Vacation Time
- Sick Time

General members with previous firefighter or law enforcement service in a reciprocal system may be eligible to redeposit withdrawn contributions in that system.





	New Member Section — on lacera.com

3/30/11