As we prepare for the transition to Phoenix later in 2023, it will be vital that you stay current on monthly error reports and submit any outstanding leave of absence, transfer, or termination forms to MOSERS.

Having as up-to-date and accurate service and salary data as possible for your employees before we switch to Phoenix will help to ensure a smooth transition and avoid a potential backlog of work. 

Maintaining the accuracy of member records is a joint effort between our staff and covered employers. Please don't hesitate to contact the Employer Services team with your MOSERS-related questions by emailing employers@mosers org or calling (800) 827-1063 option 2.

For more information about error reports, please view our Aged Accounts Receivable and Termination Error Reports Video and Employer Error Report Webinar.

CURP Overview – February 2023

CURP Transfers to MOSERS flyer – February 2023

Employer Contribution Rate infographic – February 2023

Retirement Guide – February 2023

Smart Start Checklist – February 2023

Your Guide to the Colleges & Universities Retirement Plan – February 2023

Pay is a key component in calculating an employee's future pension benefit. Part of the pension benefit formula uses an employee's "final average pay," which is the average of an employee's highest consecutive 36 months of pay. Accurate reporting of retirement-eligible pay to MOSERS ensures that member retirement benefit estimates and retirement benefits are calculated correctly.

Retirement-eligible pay includes all salary and wages payable to an employee for work performed. The following are among those payments excluded from retirement-eligible pay and must not be reported as salary and wages:

• Allowances and reimbursements for items such as phones, meals, uniforms, mileage or commuting, education or tuition, and housing or moving.
• Nonrecurring single-sum payments (such as a one-time bonus).
• Payments for unused annual leave or sick leave.
• Payments made after termination, unless it is for a final installment of salary or wages (such as a comp time payout or contract payout).
• Pay in excess of IRS compensation limits ($330,000 for 2023).
• Payments for which employer contributions have not been made.

For SAM II employers, non-retirement-eligible pay codes are automatically excluded from reporting to MOSERS. 

Non-SAM II employers must ensure that payroll files submitted to MOSERS exclude all non-retirement-eligible sources of pay. 

Before making benefit payments, MOSERS must verify the accuracy of service and salary data reported by employers. 

Please don't hesitate to contact the Employer Services team with your MOSERS-related questions by emailing employers@mosers.org or calling (800) 827-1063 option 2.

We Need Your Help to Correct Member Data Errors 

Spread the Word! MOSERS Education Events Available for 2023 

Benefit Tip – Annual Benefit Statements Coming Soon

We collect contributions from you, our employer partners, to help fund retirement, life insurance, and long-term disability benefits for benefit-eligible state employees. 

Each month, we receive a record of the previous month's pay and contributions for all covered employees. Unfortunately, a small percentage of those records contain an error, or discrepancy, between the pay and contributions MOSERS expected to receive for an employee and what was actually received. 

There are two “Error Reports” within the Employer Login that must be worked each month to address pay and contribution discrepancies and ensure the accuracy of your employees’ benefits through MOSERS:

• The Aged Accounts Receivable Report (for active employees)
• The Terminated Report (for separated employees)

Employer representatives responsible for working the reports receive an email notification when a report is released and ready to work.  

As you may be aware, we are preparing to transition to a new pension administration system called Phoenix later in 2023. Due to closer integration with your payroll system, Phoenix will significantly reduce the number of payroll discrepancies that require your attention. Phoenix will even eliminate the need for you to submit a manual form to MOSERS when one of your employees has a change in status. We are confident that you will find the new system easy to use and more efficient. 

However, as we prepare for the transition, it will be vital that you stay current on monthly error reports in our current environment and submit any outstanding leave of absence, transfer, or termination forms to MOSERS. Having as up-to-date and accurate data as possible on that initial changeover to Phoenix will help to ensure a smooth transition and avoid a potential backlog of work if we don’t have the most current data for your employees. 

Maintaining the accuracy of member records is a joint effort between our staff and covered employers. Please don't hesitate to contact the Employer Services team with your MOSERS-related questions by emailing employers@mosers.org or calling (800) 827-1063 option 2.

For more information about error reports, please view our Aged Accounts Receivable and Termination Error Reports Video and Employer Error Report Webinar.

Annual Benefit Statements will be distributed to members by the end of March.

This is a valuable planning tool because a significant part of your employee’s total compensation is through the value of the benefits they receive as a state employee (pension, healthcare, life, and long-term disability insurance, employer contributions to Social Security, etc.) plus the value of time off (annual leave, sick leave, and holidays).

Their Annual Benefit Statement contains all this information in one convenient document. They will also be able to access their Annual Benefit Statement from their Document Express online mailbox by logging in to myMOSERS. It is available for them to print or save for later reference. They will receive an email from MOSERS once their statement is posted. If they have opted to receive their correspondence from MOSERS through the mail, their statement will be sent to their home address and it is also available as described above. 

CURP Overview – February 2023

CURP Transfers to MOSERS flyer – February 2023

Employer Contribution Rate infographic – February 2023

Retirement Guide – February 2023

Smart Start Checklist – February 2023

Your Guide to the Colleges & Universities Retirement Plan – February 2023

New Employee Orientation brochure – January 2023

Total Compensation Calculator – January 2023

Highlights of Your Total Compensation Package brochure – January 2023

Destination Retirement Checklist (University Employees) – January 2023

Destination Retirement Checklist – January 2023 

SEBES Benefits Enrollment Guide – January 2023 

Phoenix Update 

From the Education Desk...

Proper LTD Submissions

Welcome, Tricia Kliethermes!

MOSERS Month is Coming in April

Recently Updated Resources

You may recall receiving periodic updates regarding the new pension administration system we’re developing called Phoenix. Phoenix is a modernized system that will be more intuitive and help us – MOSERS and its covered employers – to be even better at administering timely and accurate benefits to state employees. Staff and other key stakeholders are fine-tuning the project timeline, and we anticipate launching Phoenix later in 2023. We look forward to sharing details in the coming months and will provide training opportunities before we deploy this new system. Stay tuned! 

The 2023 education schedule is here!

MOSERS educational programs are designed to help state employees learn information about their benefits as they progress through their careers and experience different life events along the way. Please encourage your employees to register for a session! The schedule includes both in-person seminars and online webinars.

Newer Employees & MOSERS Webinars – Employees can start learning about the state benefits administered by MOSERS, including pension plan features, life insurance, long-term disability, and their personal retirement savings plan options with MO Deferred Comp.

Mid-Career Webinar – Employees can learn how different career and life events may affect their pension benefit.

Ready to Retire Sessions – Employees can learn about the retirement process and how different decisions may impact their pension benefit.

Please send your employees our way and remind them to visit the Education page for more information!

We need your help with LTD submissions!

Please remember to submit the simplified and updated Long Term Disability Employer Statement to ltdmosers@standard.com when you know your employee is applying for long-term disability (LTD) benefits.

Please advise your employee to call The Standard at (844) 505-6026 to initiate their LTD claim. Among other personal questions, The Standard will ask for the name, address, phone and fax number of their physician, as well as their HR representative’s name and e-mail address.

For more information on the LTD application process, please watch the LTD webinar put together by The Standard to illustrate the most effective way to file for LTD benefits.

We are happy to introduce Tricia Kliethermes as our newest employer services analyst. Tricia joins a team of analysts dedicated to assisting you, our valued employer representatives, in administering the retirement, life insurance, and long-term disability benefits important to your employees. Tricia has over 26 years of experience working for the State of Missouri, including almost nine years with MOSERS. Tricia brings a diverse range of experience to the position, serving as a senior benefit specialist, executive assistant, and education and legal specialist. Please don't hesitate to contact the Employer Services team with your MOSERS-related questions by emailing employers@mosers.org or calling (800) 827-1063 option 2.

This year is our third annual MOSERS Month. We are excited to introduce the theme for this year in the coming months. If you would like to be included in the sneak peek and receive a fun MOSERS Month package from us, please email nicolea@mosers.org.  

New Employee Orientation brochure – January 2023

Total Compensation Calculator – January 2023

BackDROP for General State Employees (MSEP & MSEP 2000) flyer – December 2022

Destination Retirement Checklist (University Employees) – December 2022

Destination Retirement Checklist – December 2022

2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report – November 2022

SEBES Brochure and 2023 Publications

The 2023 Education Schedule is Here!

Transfers Quick-Reference Guide

Farewell Juanita 

Please note that we update the SEBES brochure annually in January. Please do not submit “Order Materials” requests for the SEBES brochure until after the first of the year. 

TRUE or FALSE? MOSERS updates ALL our publications in January of every year so you should order a whole new supply every January?

FALSE! We do not update ALL of our publications in January. Most publications are updated annually but not specifically in January. This includes all member handbooks. Be sure to always check the online library on our website for the most up-to-date versions. 

The 2023 education schedule is here! Please encourage your employees to register for one of our educational programs that are specifically designed for each career stage. The schedule includes both in-person seminars and online webinars.

Newer Employees & MOSERS Webinars – Employees can start learning about the state benefits administered by MOSERS, including pension plan features, life insurance, long-term disability insurance, and their personal retirement savings plan options with MO Deferred Comp.

Mid-Career Webinar – Employees can learn how different career and life events may affect their pension benefit.

Ready to Retire Sessions – Employees can learn about the retirement process and how different decisions may impact their pension benefit.

Please remind them to visit the Education page for more information!

A “transfer”, as MOSERS defines it, occurs when an employee moves from one MOSERS-covered agency to another without a 30-day break in service or when an employee moves from one org/section to another org/section within the same agency.

When a transfer occurs, MOSERS needs a record of where the employee left and where the employee is going to ensure the continuity of the employee’s benefits through MOSERS. 

The action you take to report the activity to MOSERS depends on the circumstances. 

Here’s a quick-reference guide we hope will help you in those situations:

*If you have a group of employees moving from one org/section to another org/section within your agency rather than an individual employee, please email employers@mosers.org. We can initiate a mass transfer of employees on your behalf without you having to submit individual Transfer forms.   

Farewell, Juanita! One of our employer services analysts, Juanita Libbert, is retiring on January 1st, after 30 years and 4 months of service with MOSERS. Many of you have interacted with Juanita over the years in addressing status changes and payroll adjustments for your employees. Juanita possesses a thorough knowledge of employer reporting processes, and we will miss her dedicated service. Juanita’s last day in the office will be Friday, December 23^rd.  We wish her the best in her retirement years! 

Please direct any emails intended for Juanita to employers@mosers.org or call an employer services analyst at (573) 632-6100 and press option 2. 

BackDROP for General State Employees (MSEP & MSEP 2000)flyer – December 2022

Destination Retirement Checklist (University Employees) – December 2022

Destination Retirement Checklist – December 2022

Total Compensation Calculator – November 2022

2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report – November 2022

Key Facts Regarding Funding – October 2022

Summary of Pension Benefit Provisions (All Plans) – October 2022