The General Assembly passed the FY23 state budget on Friday, May 6. This budget will be effective beginning July 1, 2022. Within the FY23 budget, the General Assembly appropriated and fully funded the amount requested by the Office of Administration of $610 million to fund the State’s annual employer contribution to MOSERS. 

In addition, the General Assembly passed a $500 million one-time extraordinary payment to MOSERS. For more information, visit our Legislation page or view HB 3005. 

As an actively employed MOSERS member, you receive basic life insurance equal to one times your annual salary at no cost to you. Your employer pays the premium. The only time your basic life insurance coverage increases is if your salary increases. However, as an active member, you may be able to purchase additional optional life insurance coverage for yourself and your dependents.

To do so, log in to myMOSERS and select Enroll/Change Life Insurance Coverage from the Member Dashboard. You will also need to complete the Standard Medical History Statement.

MOSERS offers an Annual Life Insurance Review Period every October for member coverage. The review period gives eligible members the chance to increase their own optional coverage in increments of $10,000 without completing additional medical history forms. We will notify you each September if you are eligible. A family status change, such as marriage, also allows you to apply to increase your coverage within 31 days of an eligible life event without proving insurability. You may be eligible to purchase optional life insurance any other time during the year, but you will need to submit evidence of insurability.

HB 2234 does not change the current statutory rules for converting sick leave to service credit or BackDROP.

You will get one month of credited service for each block of 168 hours of unused sick leave you have at retirement. While this will increase the amount of your benefit, unused sick leave cannot count toward eligibility for retirement or as part of the BackDROP period. That is, the months of unused sick leave will not make you eligible for retirement (or BackDROP) sooner, but will increase the amount of your payment once you have retired.

Your W-2 form comes from your employer, not from MOSERS. You will need to contact your employer for your W-2. MOSERS provides retirees and benefit recipients with a 1099-R tax form, which we mailed at the end of January.

You can access your 1099-R by logging in to myMOSERS. Your most recent 1099-R is in your Document Express online mailbox. You may view, save, or print it.

In the future, you will be able to find your 1099-R in myMOSERS on your Member Dashboard in a card labeled Tax Documents. 1099-Rs from 2024 and prior years will remain in Document Express.

This form lists your 2021 retirement benefit income from MOSERS. You will need this form to file your income tax return. If you receive more than one benefit from MOSERS, you may receive more than one 1099-R from us. If you are unable to log in to myMOSERS, call us at (800) 827-1063 or (573) 632-6100 and we can mail you a replacement. For security reasons, we cannot email it to you.

Since a MOSERS pension is from Social Security covered employment in which you paid Social Security payroll taxes, it has no effect on your Social Security benefit. Additionally, your MOSERS benefit is a pension and, therefore, it does not count as salary or wages towards the annual earnings limit for Social Security.

We also suggest you speak to a tax professional or financial advisor for advice specific to your situation. 

Thank you for your email. While we mention the member’s responsibility for state taxes on BackDROP cash payments in the Ready to Retire seminar (and reference book) and on the BackDROP Distribution form, we appreciate your feedback and will try and highlight this point in the future. 

Unused sick leave does NOT count towards service for retirement ELIGIBILITY. In other words, it will not make you eligible for retirement sooner than you would have been without it. You must meet both the age and service requirements – not counting unused sick leave – to be eligible to retire.

However, as part of your retirement benefit calculation, we will add one month of additional service for each block of 168 hours of unused sick leave you have at retirement. This will increase the AMOUNT of your benefit payment every month in retirement. 

There are some specific situations in which unused sick leave doesn’t count:

• MSEP 2011 members: If you left state employment after January 1, 2018, and prior to being eligible for early or normal retirement, you will get no service credit for unused sick leave.
• MSEP retirees: If you leave state employment prior to being eligible for early or normal retirement, you will get no service credit for your unused sick leave.
• Legislators, statewide elected officials, and judges: You do not accrue sick leave.

To establish your eligibility for retirement, you must submit an acceptable proof-of-age and lawful presence document with your retirement application. You can submit one of the following documents:

• U.S. Birth Certificate (certified with embossed or raised seal issued by state or local government)

OR a photocopy of one of the following:

• Valid Missouri Driver’s License or Missouri Nondriver ID

• U.S. Passport (current or expired)

• U.S. Certificate of Citizenship

• U.S. Certificate of Naturalization

• U.S. Certificate of Birth Abroad

You can mail in or drop off your birth certificate and we will return it.

To upload any of the other documents, log in to myMOSERS. Once you are logged in, click Online Documents and then Document Upload.

Once you upload a document, our staff must process it. Please allow 1-2 business days for it to show as complete in our system.

No, that is not true. A retired member may return to work with a MOSERS-covered employer as long they follow the termination and reemployment rules.

Before receiving a benefit payment from MOSERS, an employee must have a “bona fide termination". For purposes of the MOSERS’ board rules, a "bona fide termination" occurs when:

1. You have completely severed employment;
2. You have not entered into a prearranged agreement, prior to retirement, with any employer for subsequent employment on any basis (full-time, part-time, or other); and
3. You are not subsequently employed by any employer on any basis (full-time, part-time, or other) within 30 days after your employment with your prior employer has ended.

For purposes of these rules, “employer” means the State of Missouri or any other MOSERS-covered employer. See FAQs on Separation of Service for more information.

Upon meeting the termination and reemployment rules, you may return to work and continue receiving your monthly pension payment, as long as your position is not a MOSERS or MoDOT and Patrol Employees’ Retirement System (MPERS) benefit-eligible position.