Take Advantage of PERA Retirement Counseling for Employees

PERA offers group counseling at no charge to groups of 25 people or more.
(Published Sep 19, 2012)

Did you know if your city can gather a group of 25 people or more, you can book a free pension counseling session with the Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA)?

Trying to understand pension and retirement plans can be confusing and intimidating for employees, especially as they approach retirement. Employees often rely on city human resources staff as their first point of contact for pension-related questions, but there are ways to connect your employees directly with PERA staff.

PERA provides resources to members, including the online tool “MY PERA.” And although budget and time constraints can make it difficult for individual meetings with PERA staff, PERA does offer the group counseling option for groups of 25 or more.

PERA will work with city staff to schedule meetings at locations throughout the state. Cities can hold joint meetings to increase turnout and maximize the usefulness of the sessions.

Once a meeting is scheduled, PERA will place the meeting information on its website so that participants can pre-register. PERA will calculate individual retirement estimates for pre-registered participants, and bring the estimates to the meeting. PERA staff will provide general information to the group, and and will be available to answer specific questions about the individual estimates. Sessions generally last 45 minutes to an hour.

For more information about scheduling a group counseling session, contact Linda Habel at PERA (see right).

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