If you are no longer working for a PERA employer you can either leave your member account at PERA and qualify for a monthly lifetime benefit when you are retirement eligible, or you can refund/rollover your member account with a potential match. Learn more about your options here, including accessing the refund/rollover form. It can take up to 90 days after PERA receives the necessary documentation to receive your refund/rollover.

You may leave your account with PERA for a future monthly benefit or rollover/refund your account. If you rollover/refund your account, you have the following options: 

• Rollover of your account to another tax-deferred plan or IRA. 
• Refund your account as a taxable payment to you. 
• A combination of a rollover/refund. 

You may be eligible for a portion of the employer’s contributions depending on your benefit structure, years of service credit, and if you are eligible for retirement at the time of your rollover/refund. The Refund/Rollover Request and Tax Considerations for Refunds and Rollovers brochures have more details.

You will be required to take a distribution from your PERA DB account upon reaching the appropriate Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) age set for you by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). A distribution can be a refund/rollover of the entire balance or initiation of your benefit payments. You can find more information about this requirement at www.irs.gov.