Supplementing Your Retirement

Supplementing Your Retirement

Overview
Supplementing Your Retirement

There are several opportunities to supplement your LACERS retirement allowance, which may or may not be enough to cover your expenses in retirement.

Overview

Service Credit Purchases

Service Credit Purchases

If you are eligible to purchase Service Credit, doing so may count toward your retirement eligibility and may increase your retirement allowance and health subsidy. Please note that the processing time for service credit purchase applications is 4 to 11 months (see timeline here). LACERS offers the following Service Purchase options:

Overview

Reciprocity

Reciprocity is an agreement among certain California public retirement systems allowing members to move from one public employer to another. The move must be made within six months of leaving one agency to another participating reciprocal agency. This allows for some portability of retirement benefits. 
  
When you retire, you will receive a retirement benefit based on your years of service and benefit formula from each reciprocal agency. 

Overview

Larger Annuity Program

The Larger Annuity Program (LAP) is an optional retirement investment account administered by LACERS that allows you to invest post-tax funds toward your retirement. You can start with as little a five dollars a pay period or provide a lump sum payment and you may terminate participation at any time.

At the time of retirement, you can either withdraw the funds and interest from the LAP or convert them into a monthly benefit to supplement your retirement allowance. A three percent increase will be applied for every full year.

There are two options for investment that you may select from:

Overview

Deferred Comp 457B

The City of Los Angeles Deferred Compensation Plan is a supplementary retirement savings plan. It is available to all full-time employees. This voluntary program provides a resource for supplementing other retirement benefits you may receive from the City. LACERS does not administer the plan. Click here to visit the plan’s resource center.

Overview

Social Security

Your LACERS Benefits and the Social Security Windfall Elimination Rule

Because you will receive a government pension, the amount of Social Security benefits for which you or your spouse will be eligible may be impacted. This is due to the ‘Windfall Elimination Provision’ and the ‘Government Pension Offset’ that Social Security may apply when calculating benefits. Please visit the Social Security Administration for more information.

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