Our first annual MOSERS Month in April was a success! Thank you for your support in encouraging your employees to participate!

More than 800 members took our career stage vocab quiz while many others participated in some of the other 11 activities to learn more about their MOSERS benefits!

We want to hear your thoughts on MOSERS Month! Take a moment to answer our 5-question survey. We will use your feedback to plan for MOSERS Month next year. Thanks! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TH7XXS3

As you may know, we are building a new pension administration system (PAS)! Our current PAS was built in the late 1980s and has served us well for more than 30 years, but it is nearing the end of its life expectancy. The new PAS will help us:

• Sustain and improve customer service for all stakeholders including members and employers
• Become more efficient and increase automation
• Improve accuracy of member data and controls

The PAS is analogous to the central nervous system of  MOSERS. Building it is a multi-year project. We  expect to provide members, staff, and employers with a modernized system on an updated platform in late  2022.

The PAS  contains all demographic data (name, address, SSN, Member ID, DOB, bank account numbers, etc.), individual service dates, salary history, employment status,  contribution balances, and benefit payment history for all members. It is the central hub for tracking and processing nearly everything MOSERS does related to benefit administration. Staff rely on it for accurately producing everything from routine correspondence to Annual Benefit Statements, to pension inceptions, to member payments. 

Employers interact with the PAS to submit member payroll and service credit information, including the submission of changes such as terminations or leaves of absence. 

Your input as an employer representative is vital to the overall success of our PAS project. There will be different points along this journey when we need your input. We have engaged approximately 25 employer representatives so far regarding the submission of payroll data. Now, we need to hear from you,  as one of our valuable partners. We encourage you to participate in our upcoming survey on April 30^th.

Your input will help us gauge the overall understanding of the PAS among employer representatives and help guide us regarding future communications to you about the PAS.

Thank you in advance for your participation! 

The 2021 Annual Benefit Statements for active members are now available online. Employees can access their statement by logging in to myMOSERS, clicking on Online Documents then on Document Express. If they have opted to receive their correspondence from MOSERS through the mail, we will mail their statement to their home address. It is also available as described above. Please encourage your employees to review their Annual Benefit Statements. They are a great tool for planning and assessing retirement readiness. 

(Please share with your staff who are responsible for submitting HR/payroll data to MOSERS and encourage them to attend.)

Registration is OPEN!

Join the MOSERS Employer Services staff on Wednesday, April 21, from 10:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. to learn more about the importance of submitting leave of absence forms and how leaves affect employees' benefits administered by MOSERS. We will also discuss how and when to submit transfer and termination forms.

Register today: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/9015162331775697168.

Agenda:

10:00 am – 11:00 am – Leaves, Terms & Transfers

11:00 am – 11:30 am – Open Q & A

We will post the recording on the MOSERS website as soon as possible after the event. 

Save the date!

Planning has started for the 2021 Benefits U Conference. The conference will be held online this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. With the online nature, sessions will be scheduled over a series of days instead of everything held in 1-day.  The schedule, topics and speakers are still being finalized and we will keep you updated as things develop.

True or False: Members in the MSEP 2011 can purchase prior military service

FALSE

Members of the MSEP 2011 may get automatic credit if they were employed by the state immediately prior to entering active duty military service and return to state employment within the timeframe specified by USERRA. However, purchase of prior active-duty military service credit is NOT available to members of MSEP 2011. You can view our  Purchasing and Transferring Service Guide for MSEP 2011 Members for more information.

What is a webinar?

Do your employees have questions about our webinars? Maybe they are unsure whether the online platform will work for them? In our spring PensionsPlus newsletter we included an article explaining the online webinar environment. The feedback we are receiving from our attendees has been extremely positive - they want more!

We now have webinars available for all stages of your employees’ careers. Please encourage them to read the What is a Webinar? article and to register for a session at their convenience.

Thank you for helping us spread the word! 

The Retirement Application was recently revised to include an agreement regarding MOSERS’ Board Rule on Separation of Service. Outdated paper versions of the Retirement Application will not be accepted and should be discarded. Please encourage employees to apply for retirement online by logging in to myMOSERS and selecting Retire Online from the menu. If an employee cannot apply online, they should contact a MOSERS benefit counselor who will send them a personalized paper form. 

A break in service occurs when an employee is off payroll for 30 calendar days, except when the employee is on an approved leave of absence (paid or unpaid). 

An employee rehired by the state after a break in service must re-enroll for benefits through SEBES.  

An employee rehired by the state within 30 calendar days of their separation maintains their existing benefits and should not re-enroll for benefits through SEBES unless the employee is transferring from the Department of Conservation, the Missouri Highway Patrol, the Missouri Department of Transportation, or a university (except State Technical College of Missouri and Lincoln University) as these employers administer one or more of their own benefit packages.

The first annual MOSERS Month is in full swing! Throughout the month of April, we want to invite employees to discover their benefits and learn more about their retirement journey. Each week they will receive an email with information to find code words, and participate in fun activities! We have a MOSERS Month page dedicated specifically to this event where they can download and print their very own adventure Activity Guide! They can find a breakdown of each activity on the MOSERS Month page. Please encourage them to follow along each week, complete the activities to learn more about their benefits, and have a little fun while doing it.

Happy MOSERS Month and let the journey begin! 

It is our pleasure to introduce Jamie Mullen as our new employer services manager. As our former assistant benefit officer, with more than ten years of service working for MOSERS, Jamie is an expert regarding members' benefits and employer relations. Jamie will be providing direction, oversight, employer training, and educational programs to communicate complex statutes, benefit information, and employer representative procedures simply and accurately. He will lead the implementation of all procedures related to submitting contributions accurately and timely. Working as a direct contact to employers, Jamie will oversee all communication and employer relations. We are thrilled to have Jamie continue his work with MOSERS in the employer services manager position.

Contact Jamie:

Email: jmullen@mosers.org

Phone: (573) 632-6133

We are thrilled to announce that April will be the first annual MOSERS Month! MOSERS Month will be dedicated to encouraging all state employees to learn more about their employee benefits.

Throughout the month, active members will have the opportunity to discover their retirement journey through a series of fun activities. We will have a web page dedicated especially to the month where they can download their very own adventure activity book. Additionally, each week they will receive an email encouraging them to view their annual benefit statements, unlock hidden codes, and participate in activities to help them learn more about their MOSERS benefits and discover their retirement path.

We will be posting more information to the news section of our website in the coming weeks, so be sure to check back for updates. Please encourage your employees to participate and view their annual benefit statements during the month. We appreciate your help in getting the word out! 

(Please share with your staff who are responsible for submitting payroll data to MOSERS and encourage them to attend.)

Save the date!

Join the MOSERS Employer Services staff to learn more about the importance of submitting leave of absence forms and how leaves affect employees' benefits administered by MOSERS. We will also discuss how and when to submit transfer and termination forms.

Wednesday, April 21

10:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m.

Registration information coming in early April! 

Spring webinars for university faculty and staff will start in April. If you are a campus HR representative, please check your email for a reminder from us, which includes important information about the webinars along with a promo piece to forward to employees and instructions for enrolling. We will be mailing packets to members who enroll two weeks prior to the webinar date. For those who enroll within two weeks of the webinar date, resources will be available to download during the webinar with the exception of an individualized Benefit Estimate which may be generated online via myMOSERS.

Visit MSEP/MSEP 2000 University Ready to Retire Sessions for more information and to see the full schedule.

If you didn’t receive your reminder email, please send us an email at MOSERSEducation@mosers.org and we will send one to you.

Thank you for helping us promote these sessions for your employees! 

Don’t be the reason your disabled employee is not approved for LTD.

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

Please advise your employee to provide their HR representative's contact information to The Standard when they call in (844-505-6026) to initiate their LTD claim. 

On occasion, the employee neglects to provide the employer contact information to The Standard. This causes a delay in the review of the claim. To assist with this process, MOSERS is collecting the contact information for the individual(s) responsible for completing the Employer Statement at each covered employer. As such, please email the name, phone number, and email address of the person best suited to complete the Employer Statement at your agency to employers@mosers.org. Please also include the contact person’s department, agency, and organization number.  

Reminder: Before receiving a benefit payment from MOSERS, IRS rules require a “bona fide termination” of the member’s employment. For purposes of  MOSERS Board Rules, a "bona fide termination" occurs when:  

• Member’s employment has been completely severed;

• No prearranged agreement (written or oral) exists for reemployment (full, part-time, or other); retiring members must certify on retirement application, under penalty of fraud, that no prearrangement for employment exists; and

• Retiree has not been reemployed by the State of Missouri or any MOSERS-covered employer (full, part-time, or other) within 30 days after their prior employment ended.                

See FAQs – MOSERS’ Board Rule on Separation of Service for more information. 

Please contact MOSERS if you have questions on separation of service requirements. 

Education is open!

We have redesigned our educational programs to help state employees learn information about their benefits as they progress through their career and experience different life events along the way.

• Newer Employees & MOSERS Webinars – NEW! Start learning about the state benefits administered by MOSERS.
  • For employees who are newer to the state with at least six months but less than five years of service (not yet vested)
  • Speakers include MOSERS and MO Deferred Comp
  • Daytime and evening session available
  • Sessions last approximately 1½ hours
• Mid-Career Webinar – Learn how different career and life events may affect your pension benefit.
  • For employees with at least five years of service (vested) and ten or more years until retirement eligibility
  • Speakers include MOSERS and MO Deferred Comp
  • Daytime and evening sessions available
  • Sessions last approximately 2 hours
• Ready to Retire Sessions – Learn about the retirement process and how different decisions may impact your pension benefit.
  • For employees within five years of retirement eligibility
  • Speakers include MOSERS, MO Deferred Comp, MCHCP, and Social Security
  • Daytime and evening sessions available
  • Sessions are full-day or part-day or evening depending on the type

Download and share our  NEW  Education Poster with your employees and hang it in your common areas. If possible, we encourage you to allow eLearning credit for your employees attending one of these sessions.

Stay up to date and visit www.mosers.org/education  frequently for more information, including schedules and how to register. 

Maintaining accurate service records is vital in the calculation/determination of benefits for MOSERS members. It is very important that you submit termination, transfer, and leave of absence/back to work forms in a timely manner through the MOSERS Employer Portal. We appreciate your continued support in making these processes smooth and efficient for you and your employees.

Terminations

• Report the last day the employee was actively employed by your agency, this includes the last day worked or on leave (paid or unpaid).
• If you are a SAMII agency, the termination date entered on the form is typically one day earlier than the termination date used in SAMII.

• If an employee is terminating at the end of a pay period, and the pay period ends on a regularly scheduled day off, please submit the termination date as the last day of the pay period.

• An employee’s date of termination and payroll must agree.
• Example: If an employee’s last day of work is on January 31, they should receive payroll for the full month of January.

• If there is a date difference between the last day worked (or on paid leave) and the date of termination, submit a Leave of Absence form for the period between the last time worked or when the leave was exhausted to the date of termination.
• Example: Termination date 3/14/2021 — no payrolls received for March 31 payroll
• Submit a leave form effective 3/1/2021 to term date of 3/14/2021.

• If an employee is retiring directly from active employment, use the last day of the month in which they were actively employed by your agency as the termination date.
• Example: Retirement date is 4/1/2021 = Termination date of 3/31/2021
• Please submit the employee’s termination form no later than the first week of the month in which he/she is retiring.

• Be cautious about submitting a termination form too early (i.e., two months or earlier). Once the form has been submitted online, it automatically updates the employee’s records in our system and shows them as terminated. The employee then may no longer be able to generate benefit estimates using myMOSERS.

Transfers

• If the employee has not missed 30 calendar days of payroll and is transferring employment from one state agency to another (in a MOSERS-covered benefit-eligible position):
• The hiring agency must complete the Transfer of Employment form.
• The previous employer must complete the Termination of Employment form. 
• Exceptions for completing a transfer form:
• Employees returning to state employment who have missed 30 calendar days of payroll.
• Employees transferring from the Department of Conservation, Highway Patrol, Department of Transportations, or a state college/university (except State Technical College of Missouri and Lincoln University), which are not covered by MOSERS' life insurance plan.
• If either exception exists, the hiring agency should enroll the employee in SEBES rather than submitting a transfer form.  

Leave of Absence

• MOSERS requires the agency to report a leave of absence using the first full day the employee is in an unpaid status as the effective date of leave.
• Report to MOSERS when the employee returns to work. 

MOSERS is hosting the next employer training webinar on Wednesday, April 21 from 10:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. This session will be delivered by the MOSERS Employer Services Department and topics will include leave, transfer, and termination forms. More information to come!

View the recording of the Employee Error Reporting portion of the Employer Training Webinar held on Dec 3, 2020. Content is presented by Juanita Mummert, Assistant Benefits Officer-Education; Juanita Libbert, Receivables Analyst; and Shelley Lehmann, Contribution Analyst.

Use the navigation bar at the bottom of the recording to move through the recording: 

00 min – 23 min: Employer Error Report 

23 min – 38 min: Q & A, including review of MOSERS website

38 min – 45 min: LTD Employer Statement, Claims Process and FAQs

45 min – 49 min: Employer Error Report Reference Guide & review of Employer webpages

You may also view The Standard’s LTD Claim Process Submission video for a review of their portion of the Dec 3, 2020, webinar.