Reciprocity
ET-7364, Rev. 6/2007
Reciprocity Between the:
- Wisconsin Retirement System
- City of Milwaukee Employes' Retirement System
- Milwaukee County Employees' Retirement System
What Retirement Systems are Covered Under Reciprocity?
Wis. Stat. § 40.30, provides limited reciprocity between
the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS), City of Milwaukee Employes'
Retirement System (ERS) and the Milwaukee County Employees' Retirement
System. You may benefit from this law if you are not yet retired
and you have a retirement account with at least two of these three
public retirement systems in Wisconsin.
Who May Be Eligible for Reciprocity?
If you are employed by the State of Wisconsin or are a teacher
in a public school system (including Milwaukee Public Schools),
and you have retirement coverage, you are covered under the WRS.
Most local governmental units (villages, cities, counties, school
districts, etc.) other than the City and County of Milwaukee also
participate in the WRS, and if you are employed by a participating
local government unit and have retirement coverage, you are covered
under the WRS. Employees of the City of Milwaukee, including non-teaching
employees of Milwaukee Public Schools, are covered by the City of
Milwaukee ERS. Milwaukee County employees are covered by the Milwaukee
County Employees’ Retirement System.
What Is Reciprocity?
Under reciprocity, the employee’s separate retirement accounts
from these systems are not combined into one account; the benefits
from each system are calculated separately. However, under some
circumstances, you may be able to increase your retirement benefits
payable from one or more of these systems by electing to have your
benefits calculated under reciprocity.
Under reciprocity, each retirement system calculates your benefits
using the benefit formula in effect on the date you terminate all
employment covered by one of the three participating retirement
systems. For WRS benefits calculated under reciprocity, this means
that your benefits would be calculated using the formula factors
and age reduction factors for early retirement that are in effect
when you retire, even if you terminated covered WRS employment before
those factors went into effect.
Eligibility
To qualify for reciprocity you must meet several requirements:
- Employment from at least one of the three participating retirement
systems must terminate on or after May 11, 1990.
- You must meet the vesting requirements in one of the three participating
retirement systems and subsequently become employed in a position
covered under one of the other participating systems.
- The retirement benefits from all applicable retirement systems
must be effective within a 60-day period. This means that you
generally cannot begin receiving any benefits until you have terminated
all employment covered by the three retirement systems. You should
consider whether it would be more beneficial to begin receiving
benefits as early as possible from the system(s)
in which you are inactive.
- If you have closed your account from one of the three participating
retirement systems, that closed account cannot be considered when
determining eligibility for reciprocity.
- You must file your election with all of the participating retirement
systems of which you are currently a member. If you elect to have
your retirement benefits calculated under reciprocity, it will
apply to the benefits from all of the eligible systems.
Benefits Under Reciprocity
If you qualify for reciprocity and elect to have your benefits
calculated under these provisions, your benefits from each system
are calculated separately under the laws of the respective systems.
However, benefits from one or more of the retirement systems may
be affected in the following ways:
- If you meet the vesting requirements in one of the three participating
retirement systems, under reciprocity, your years of service under
the vested system can be used to meet the vesting requirements
for subsequent participating retirement systems. This could qualify
you for a retirement benefit from a later system for which you
might not otherwise be eligible.
- Under reciprocity, if the WRS is the earlier retirement system,
your WRS benefit is calculated under the formulas in effect for
the WRS the last date you terminate employment covered under any
one of the participating retirement systems. This could allow
you to take advantage of any WRS benefit improvements that have
occurred since you terminated employment covered under an earlier
retirement system. You must contact the City of Milwaukee ERS
and/or the Milwaukee County Employees’ Retirement System
to determine what affect, if any, that reciprocity would have
on those benefits.
- The final average earnings from each earlier system that is
used to calculate the retirement benefit from that system is increased
by the national salary index [under 42 USC 415 (b) (3) (A)], updated
to the last day paid for the last employment covered under one
of the three participating retirement systems.
- If you have military service that qualifies for credit under
one or more of the participating retirement systems, you can only
use your military service for credit in one of the systems. If
you are eligible for military service credit in more than one
system, it is very important that you identify how it would increase
your benefit in each system before deciding which system would
provide the greatest benefit for your military service. Be sure
to consider potential future annuity increases when making this
decision.
- Reciprocity applies only to the benefits under the system in
which the employee is first vested and from subsequent systems;
it does not retroactively vest you under previous system(s).
- Reciprocity applies only to retirement benefits; it cannot be
used to qualify for disability benefits.
How to Proceed
If you believe that you qualify and that reciprocity may increase
your retirement benefits, your first step is to have your earlier
service verified by the appropriate retirement systems. To do this,
you must request an Employee Summary of Prior Employment Covered
by a Wisconsin Public Employees Retirement System form (ET-7356)
from the Department of Employee Trust Funds and submit it to the
previous retirement system with which you have an account. If you
have inactive accounts with two participating retirement systems,
you will need a separate form for each previous system.
The previous system(s) must verify your service and account status
and send a copy of the completed form to each of the other two systems.
The completed form should be on file with the WRS, and/or City of
Milwaukee ERS and/or the Milwaukee County Employees’ Retirement
System. This will provide each system with documentation of your
potential eligibility for reciprocity when you request retirement
benefit information from the systems you are a member.
We encourage you to have your past service verified at least a
year before your anticipated retirement date. This will ensure adequate
lead time to get all of the information you need, which is critical
since the benefits from each system calculated under reciprocity
must begin within 60 days of each other. When you request
retirement benefit estimates from each system (normally 6-12 months
before your anticipated retirement date), it is very important that
you request information about how reciprocity would affect your
benefits from each system. You will need this information
when deciding whether to elect to have your benefits calculated
under reciprocity.
If you determine that it is to your advantage to have your benefits
calculated under reciprocity, please call the Department of Employee
Trust Funds to request the Reciprocity Election form (ET-7366).
You must file the completed election form with the retirement system
under which your most recent employment was covered; that system
will be responsible for coordinating your reciprocity election with
the other system(s). Once filed, the election can only be withdrawn
or canceled under the rules governing retirement application withdrawals
and cancellations for the system covering the most recent employment.
Who to Contact:
City of Milwaukee Employes' Retirement System
Room 603
200 East Wells Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202
(414) 286-3557
Milwaukee County Employees' Retirement System
Room 210 C
901 North 9th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53233
(414) 278-4242
Wisconsin Retirement System
(See Contact ETF page.)
The Department of Employee Trust Funds does not discriminate
on the basis of disability in the provision of programs, services
or employment. If you are speech, hearing or visually impaired and
need assistance, call toll free 1-877-533-5020 or (608) 266-3285
or TTY (local Madison). We will try to find another way to get the
information to you in a usable form.
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