The Wisconsin Retirement System Annual Statement of Benefits (dated January 1, 2025) will soon be delivered to active employees with WRS contribution balances as of December 31, 2024. 

Note: All active employees will receive their statement in the mail. The employer will be responsible for the cost of return postage for incorrect member addresses.

Employees Should Carefully Review Statements

The annual Statement of Benefits provides WRS participants the opportunity to review important WRS account information that will eventually be used in benefit calculations. Therefore, we ask that you encourage employees to carefully review their statements and the supporting How to Read my Statement of Benefits web page, available on the ETF website. Employers are required to provide their employees this link.

Additional resources are available on the My Statement of Benefits page on the ETF website, including a link to the how to read page, benefits calculator, and other related resources.

Please be sure your employees know they are active employees.

Your employees should contact you for clarification of the WRS information that you have reported to ETF: employment category, earnings, and hours worked (ETF converted the hours worked to WRS-creditable service). It is critical that you immediately correct any reporting errors. Please refer to Chapter 11 of the WRS Administration Manual (ET-1127) for instructions and guidance on making prior year account adjustments.

Please notify your employees that after terminating all WRS-covered employment, they must notify ETF of any address changes so they will continue to receive their annual Statement of Benefits (until a benefit is taken) and other communications from ETF.

Employees Can Access Statement of Benefits Online  

New this year, employees can now view, download, and print their Wisconsin Retirement System Annual Statement of Benefits online without needing to contact ETF. The 2025 statements will be available soon. Past statements dating back to 2012 are also available online.  

Note: all employees will still also receive their latest statement in the mail. ETF mails these out in April each year.

The statement mailing will include a flyer with more information on how employees can access their statements online. 

You may direct them to visit the My Statement of Benefits page on the ETF website for more information on how to securely access their statement online. They will need to set up a MyWisconsin ID account to get access. The ETF website provides tools to assist with the initial login process.

ETF Web Forms is another application that is available in My Benefits. Currently, this application allows eligible members to request a disability retirement estimate. In the future, more ETF forms may be added.

Making these statements and other resources available online through the My Benefits system is part of ETF’s modernization efforts to improve online self-service for members and employers.  If you have questions, reach out to your ETF case manager.  

Special Note for Employers of Protective Category Employees 

For protective categories under the WRS, employers have a higher employer-required contribution rate for categories 33 and 34, and employees have a higher employee-required contribution rate for category 43. ETF holds the excess contributions in the reserve to fund the actuarially determined benefit cost associated with the protective categories higher formula benefit and lower minimum retirement age. The Annual Statement of Benefits lists the money purchase balance of the member’s account. The money purchase balance consists of the employee-required contributions plus a matching employer-required contribution. The excess contributions that are paid above the employee-required rate do not appear on the Annual Statement of Benefits. Duty Disability costs paid by the employer or the employee also do not appear on the Annual Statement of Benefits.

Questions

Employees and employers with questions after reviewing the information supplied with the Statement of Benefits may contact ETF at 1-877-533-5020.