Reciprocity is a special relationship that exists between LACERA and certain public retirement systems located in California. Reciprocal benefits are designed to “encourage career public service” by protecting retirement benefits when public service employees transfer to other public service jobs.

ELIGIBILITY
You are eligible for reciprocal benefits if you terminate your County service and leave your retirement contributions, if any, on deposit with LACERA. Your employment at one public agency must terminate before employment at the next public agency begins. Overlapping service, even service due to vacation or sick time, may cause disqualification for reciprocity. Within six months, you must become employed by another public agency covered by a reciprocal retirement system within California. Call LACERA for more information and to request a Reciprocity Package.

BENEFITS OF RECIPROCITY
Your contribution rate in the new system will be based on your age when you joined the first system. This could be advantageous to you because the younger you are when you join a contributory retirement plan, the lower your monthly contribution rate is. Your years of service earned under each system will be added together to meet vesting requirements and the minimum years of service credit needed for retirement. When calculating your retirement allowance, each system will use your highest final compensation, whether you earned that compensation while a member of LACERA or a reciprocal system.

REQUIREMENTS
You must leave your contributions and interest on deposit with LACERA while your employment is covered by a reciprocal retirement system. Under reciprocity, you must apply for retirement from each system separately and retire from each system concurrently (on the same day). Each system will provide you with a separate benefit payment, based on your age and years of service credit in that system.

See Reciprocal Systems.

9/24/07