ERS Money Talks Podcast
A financial podcast from the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS). Enjoy a new way of getting your ERS financial news and timely resources to help you get the most out of your benefits.
ERS Money Talks Podcast
Read it on Reddit with Jeff Yeagle
Hosts Dani and Crystal are joined by Jeff, a member of our Specialty Operations Services team, to answer member questions found on a popular forum based social media platform.
Helpful contacts:
Contact the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) by calling (877) 275-4377 (TTY: 711), Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT. If your question doesn’t need an immediate answer visit the Contact ERS webpage and submit a question to be answered over email.
Contact a Texa$aver℠ 401(k) / 457 Program Retirement Plan Advisor (RPA) by calling (800) 634-5091 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. CT or schedule an appointment with an RPA.
Helpful resources:
There is so much information surrounding your ERS benefits that sometimes you have to ask, what does this mean? Most people will come to us, but others turn to their community for the answers. Some people, that's their coworkers. And for others, it's social media. While we can't help you with matters of opinion, we've got the facts and the experts. ERS's customer benefits manager, Jeff Eagle, joins today's episode of Money Talks to answer the questions from the popular forum-based social media, Reddit. And to help connect you with ERS resources to help you make the best decisions for your health and retirement. Hi, and welcome to ERS Money Talks. I'm Dani Levrie, an editor for Money MattERS newsletter. Hi, everyone. I'm Crystal Olvera.
Crystal Olvera:I am the subject matter expert for HealthSelect Medicare Advantage plan. I also am the editor for Your ERS Connection. That is our retiree newsletter.
Dani Levrie:So this week, Crystal and I thought we'd have a little bit of a change up from our usual podcast. Like we usually say in every episode, we want to hear your thoughts We've had some submissions and work closely with the ERS customer benefits team to develop articles and podcasts related to your financial questions and concerns. But we wanted more.
Crystal Olvera:Right. So we did a little digging and we found a subreddit on Reddit. And it is the State of Texas Employees subreddit. Now, for those of you who don't know what Reddit is, it's a social media platform and it focuses on foreign So you can go on there, create an account and talk about anything you want. There's a subreddit for so many different things, movies, music, you know, cleaning tips, everything, including the state of Texas employees subreddit.
Dani Levrie:So today we're going to be going over a lot of information. Crystal and I worked pretty diligently to cover a vast amount of topics because y'all are asking a lot of different things on
Crystal Olvera:Reddit. We thought it was pretty cool that people were gathering to ask questions about their benefits. And of course, us being ERS thought, let's answer those questions. It's important that you get the correct information, accurate information. We know that there can be a lot of misinformation out there. So that's what we're going to do today. And we've Welcome, Jeff. He is a member of our Specialty Operations Services team.
Jeff Yeagle:Hey, thanks so much for having me, ladies. I really appreciate it. Certainly excited to be here. And like Crystal said, my name is Jeff Yagel. I am the Specialty Operations Services Manager, which is part of our Customer Benefits Department. And one of our main responsibilities is to train and educate our benefits counselors on all things retirement. And one thing that we really strive to do is not just provide accurate information, but complete information. So I was really thrilled to actually see a lot of these questions online as well. Some really great answers are already on there, but there's definitely some that need some clarity. And that's what I hope to bring today.
Dani Levrie:Thanks, Jeff. I agree. Red is an excellent place for people to go in and ask questions. I don't necessarily think it's an excellent place for people to go in and ask questions specifically around their ERS benefits, but I do appreciate the moderators for opening up the community for other opinion-based questions. I also really appreciate the moderators for going in and including some very specific rules around personal identifying information or PII. We, along with the moderators, want to make sure your information is safe. So not only on a public forum like Reddit, but also whenever it comes to us here at ERS. That's why we're emphasizing today that you call us. We really want to get you the accurate information and also safeguard that information. That's part of the reason we brought in Jeff. Yeah,
Jeff Yeagle:absolutely. And what we find a lot of times is when members call and they say, well, my coworker or my my friend or even somebody else within the agency told me this, that, or this, and it's actually not appropriate or applicable to that member. So one thing we're really going to strive today is really understanding your rules. And the rules are based on when you were hired or when you actually became a member, meaning when you contributed to retirement. And we have four different groups or retirement groups. And it's super important that you understand which group you're in because some of the rules are the same for every group. But some of them are different. And if you don't understand those rules, then you're going to make decisions based on false information. And that's certainly not what we want. But the best thing I can say is call us. This is our area of expertise. So we're super easy to reach at 877-275-4377. Or if it's not an urgent matter, if you prefer to email us, you can go to the ERS website, which is ers.texas, which is spelled out, .gov, and click on the contact ERS link above the right Thank
Crystal Olvera:you so much, Jeff. And so while lurking on our subreddit, Dani and I chose some of the questions that we saw that were common, reoccurring and things that were related to your finances. So we've chosen a couple of questions here and a lot of them are very long. So we've shortened them a little and we are going to try our best to answer them. We've even got some that had some responses from other people. other Redditors and we'll let you know if that is the correct answer or if there's more information about the subject that they asked about.
Dani Levrie:So we do want to highlight that if we mention something inside of this podcast, we will include a link to it in the show notes that will also transfer over to all of the other ways that you're consuming the podcast and also YouTube. In the event that you have a question that maybe we didn't address fully, you'll be able to search our website and call us. Yeah, we'll also
Crystal Olvera:have the phone numbers and our hours of operation in case you want to give us a call. I mean, of course, we encourage you to do that, especially because it's easier for us to answer your question more accurately if we actually speak to you one-on-one and are able to look at your account. So let's go ahead and get started.
Dani Levrie:Absolutely. This question deals with military service credit. And I think it's so important because I've heard it plenty of times. I've even heard it from some of my coworkers. Here it is, Jeff and Crystal. Why on earth is buying military service time so expensive?
Jeff Yeagle:All right. Well, let's first talk about a couple of things here. Let's talk about actually how it's calculated. So military service is calculated. It's actually in statute. It's chapter 813.302 if you really want to look it up but it's based off of your initial first full contribution to retirement and then there's a 10% interest charge for every fiscal year that's passed since you were first eligible to purchase it until you do purchase it so for example if my first full contribution was $300 and I was eligible to buy 60 months of military service my baseline cost would be $18,000 and because what you're doing is you are buying credit. So like what you would contribute for, but the longer you wait, no matter what, the longer you wait, the more expensive it's going to be. So if you are considering purchasing it, whether you purchase all of it or some of it, it's best to purchase it as early as possible.
Dani Levrie:Excellent point, Jeff. I think that this is one time that if you're listening to us and you really, really know somebody has potentially has some service credit inside of your agency, one of your coworkers, this is the next time for you to be the right co-worker and tell them you should call ERS and look into purchasing your service credit as early as you can. You don't want to wait on that.
Jeff Yeagle:Yeah, absolutely. So just to give you a bit more insight before we can even calculate it, we need a copy of your DD-214. So definitely send that to us. There's no commitment to purchasing credit for just for us to certify and tell you that cost. But once we have that, then we can have a really good conversation with you. It's such a loaded question to say, is it worth purchasing? Because everybody's goal is different. So is your goal to increase your annuity? Is your goal to retire sooner? Is your goal to impact when you're vested for insurance or if you're subjected to tiered insurance? Is your goal to get to the 75% mark or the 100% mark in regards for the state to pay for your premium at time of retirement? But once we have a conversation with you, once we're able to determine the cost of it, then we can talk to you about how How does it impact your retirement date? How does it impact your annuity? It's super important, as I mentioned earlier, knowing what group that you're in. For example, Group 1 does not have any age reductions. So there's a lot of benefits to buying that credit because you can retire sooner, you can increase your annuity, and potentially you're increasing the percentage that the state pays for your insurance benefits in retirement. But if you're Group 2 or 3, there are age reductions if you retire before a certain age. So while you purchase that, you may be able to retire sooner, but take a reduction in your annuity. So maybe that's not the value for you. But again, everybody's goal is different. So just to make a blanket statement, is it worth it or not? It wouldn't be appropriate to do.
Dani Levrie:Thank you for being our unbiased king, Jeff.
Jeff Yeagle:Anytime. I'm going to make a plug for a really great resource that I love that's available on our website. It's called Planning Your Retirement. So in that search function, put in P as in Papa, Y as in Yankee, R as in Romeo And the first result that comes up is planning your retirement. It's for standard service members like us. There is a separate one for those who are in a CPO or CO position or contribute to what's called LECOS. They have some different rules. But it's a really great resource that defines your groups. And it goes over a number of different things that we're going to talk about today. But great resource.
Dani Levrie:So very recently, the search function was updated on our ERS website. That's right. The been updated with assistance from Google AI. So if you're not sure what you need to call about, if maybe we didn't answer the things you needed today, maybe you're not on Reddit asking these questions, go ahead and visit our website. It's an improved search function and we highly recommend it. And you'd be better informed when you're calling us or you might not even need to call us for your answers. So highly recommend. Thanks for the excellent suggestion for the plug, Jeff.
Jeff Yeagle:Anytime. I love it.
Crystal Olvera:All right. On to the next question. We're going to get into some Medicare stuff. It's my favorite subject. So this is someone who is trying to decide on enrolling in an outside Medicare plan versus our HealthSelect secondary plan. They're asking, what should I choose? So, you know, I know we've discussed this before and we do get this question a lot. What should I choose? What plan should I choose? Sometimes not even with Medicare, sometimes the regular plans. The thing is, we can't really tell you what plan to choose. It really is up to you. What kind of medical services are you seeking? What are you looking for? We do have the two plans that we offer and we can definitely go over those. But Jeff, do you want to speak to this as well?
Jeff Yeagle:Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing I would say is that if you're approaching retirement and you're Medicare eligible and you are within 90 days of your goal retirement date, don't wait. There's no benefit in waiting, whether you're going to choose to enroll in one of our medical plans or an outside plan is do your research in advance. So there's these extra steps and it can be overwhelming. So my best piece of advice is not to wait. Do that in advance. Start your process 90 days in advance for retirement. Definitely get in touch with Social Security and your HR department as well if you're over 60 Yeah. retirees to know is if you are going to choose between one of those two things is that you are not tied into it. It's not like an active employee where you pick your plan and you're stuck with that until you have a qualifying life event or open enrollment. With a retiree and their medical plan, there's a rule called freedom of movement that would allow you to switch from the advantage plan to the secondary plan or vice versa any time during the year. There are some enrollment periods in terms of timeline to get enrolled, but you have that option to switch from one to the other. But if you are going to consider an outside plan, I can't speak to those. That's not our area of expertise. But things to know is if you do waive the state medical insurance, you also waive the prescription coverage. You also waive the twenty five hundred dollar basic life insurance as a retiree. So be aware of that.
Dani Levrie:Right. So, again, this is a financial podcast and oftentimes we're looking in the here and the now. But when you're thinking about your finances, it's also important to look in the future, right? So if I'm thinking long term, I need to be here at ERS for 10 years and participate with the group benefits plan in order for me to have potentially very similar coverage that my retirees, my friendly retirees have now. I need to put in work and I need to think about these things. If not, I need to start planning my retirement budget around paying for those separate plans. And I really appreciate y'all bringing this to people's attention. It's important for us as active employees to look to the future as well, not just individuals that are
Jeff Yeagle:already retired. Thank
Dani Levrie:you so much, Jeff and Crystal. All righty. So here is a fun little section. In fact, I might call it my favorite section. They are about furthering careers by transferring between state agencies and leaving state employment altogether. This was actually covered in my first story for Money MattERS in Know Before You Go. So here we go. Jeff and Crystal and also our wonderful search engine. First question. I'm transferring between states. Yeah, it's really,
Jeff Yeagle:really common for state employees to switch agencies. While ERS doesn't dictate how your credit gets transferred or if your sick leave or annual leave gets transferred, you definitely would want to speak with your HR department about that for sure. I definitely want to talk to you about how your insurance benefits can change. So switching agencies is considered a qualifying life event. So you You have the opportunity to make changes to your insurance benefits at that time. But don't just assume that when you switch agencies, your insurance is going to stay the same. You have to fill out a new benefits enrollment form with your new agency. And you're going to want to do that as quickly as possible and ask your new agency to get that report to us as quickly as possible. Ultimately, as long as you don't have a break in service, meaning like I stop working on a Friday, I take two weeks off and then started a new agency, that would be a break in service. And then you would have an insurance waiting period again of 60 days. If you have no break in service, so I stop working on a Friday, I start at the new agency on a Monday as an example, then there is no insurance waiting period. But you don't want to go through this period of like a limbo in a sense where you're waiting for one agency to do something and the new agency to do something else. Just know to stay on top of that and get your benefits enrollment form filled out with your new agency as soon as possible.
Dani Levrie:So it's not even just as soon as possible. I mean, of course, if you can get that form filled out next day, absolutely. But you actually have 30 days after your start date, not including your start date, to sign up for those benefits. So thank you so much, Jeff, for answering that one.
Jeff Yeagle:Absolutely.
Dani Levrie:Now on to the question we are scared to hear. The question that I am scared to ask. If I leave Yeah, again, another
Jeff Yeagle:super common question. The first thing I would say is if you don't need the money, leave the money. What we hear from so many members who have withdrawn their service and come back to the state, they say, I wish I never did that. Well, shoulda, coulda, woulda. There is a reason why you did it at that time, and we can't go back on that. But let's say you do, whether you never plan to come back or you do plan or you just don't know, right? We don't know what the future holds. But you have a couple options in terms of with your draw. If you withdraw the funds and take it to yourself directly, a check will be mailed to you. There is no direct deposit option. Your other option, though, is you can say, hey, I want to roll those funds over to like a 401k or an IRA. The benefit of doing that is not taxed at the time of the rollover. we will still mail you a check. It'll say pay to the order of your financial institution for the benefit of you. Your other option is, let's say you want to take a portion of a payment directly to you and the other portion to be rolled over to a financial institution. In that case, you'll get two checks mailed to you, one made out to you, another one again made out to the financial institution for the benefit of you. And then you would give that check. If you do a rollover, then it's your responsibility to give that payment to the financial institution. The only time that we ever mail directly to the financial institution is if you are rolling over to your Texas Saver 401k or 457. And that situation, it's the only time we would ever mail directly to the financial institution.
Crystal Olvera:Got it. Okay. And of course, just a reminder that if you do withdraw that amount, you have to start all over
Jeff Yeagle:again. And it's taxed at 20% right away. If you're under the age of, I want to say 59 and a half, you can to have an additional 10% tax penalty at tax times. And again, if you don't need the money, it's going to accrue interest. If your group's one through three, it's a 2% interest. If you're four, it's a guaranteed 4% interest. Plus you could get gain share with additional interest. So before there's some differences there with you, but again, it's not like the money's sitting there. You can't lose any money by being there. So there's no negative in a sense to leave your money with here, with the state. Again, because it's going to increase interest.
Dani Levrie:You're really selling me on this, Jeff.
Jeff Yeagle:Well, I don't want you to leave in the first place, Dani. Come on in. So, yeah.
Dani Levrie:Here's a question specifically around retirement for a Group 2 employee. I'm a Group 2 employee with just under 10 years of service. I left my pension and Texas Saver 401k funds with ERS when I took a federal job. I plan to go back and become vested. How much would my annuity be if I reach my 10-year-old? So Dani,
Jeff Yeagle:again, another common occurrence, but they're considering coming back, but they're doing their research, they're weighing out their options, and they want to know what are the factors that we use.
Crystal Olvera:Now, as far as how your annuity is calculated, in this instance, it's going to depend on
Jeff Yeagle:what group you're in. So for groups one through three, you're staying in the annuity group. Standard annuity, which is your highest monthly payment that you can receive, is based off of two major factors. One is called your highest average salary. So for group one, it's your highest 36 individual months salary, and we average that out.
Crystal Olvera:And for group two, we're going to take your years and months of service, multiply it by the highest average salary, 48 months of working with the state.
Jeff Yeagle:I want to clarify, it's not your last three years or your last four years or your last five years.
Crystal Olvera:It is does not have to be consecutive. So maybe you started at a high salary and maybe your salary has ebbed and flowed throughout the years.
Jeff Yeagle:People change positions. We just talked earlier about how people change agencies and sometimes people change positions. Exactly. So in this scenario, if they get to 10 years, 10 times 2.3 is they would get 23 percent of their highest average salary or their highest 48 month average salary in this scenario. But coming back, you're also gaining sick leave and annual leave. And as a group two member, you can earn credit for that too, not towards your retirement eligibility, but towards your annuity eligibility. So while you may have 10 years of service credit, you may have also earned credit with their sick leave and annual leave. And every single month of credit that you have will help increase your annuity payment.
Crystal Olvera:Now, there's another part of the question that they wanted to clarify. Do I begin getting my state health insurance at Well,
Jeff Yeagle:so it depends. There's two ways to qualify for insurance. There's what's called the Rule of 80, which is your age in years and months, plus your service credit in years and months. Now, in this scenario, if they got to 10 years and they separated, because they wouldn't meet the Rule of 80 at this point, they would have to wait until they were 65 to retire. Because the other rule, besides the Rule of 80, is being 65 with at least 10 years of service for group two members. So this member would have some options. They could get to their 10-year mark and keep working and then retire at their rule of 80. And when you meet the rule of 80, regardless of how old you are, you qualify for medical insurance at that time. If you do not retire under the rule of 80, then you do have to wait till 65 for your medical insurance. But in this scenario, if they're not meeting the rule of 80, they'd have to be 65 anyway to retire. There is a difference, though, of retiring directly from state employment. So you retire directly from state employment and either 65 with 10 years of service or you meet the rule of 80, your medical insurance starts right away. If you have separated from state employment and then you age into the rule of 80 or you turn 65, since you were not part of the group benefit plan at time of retirement, you would have a 60-day waiting period for your medical insurance to start. So that's a lot of information for sure. And this is, again, why we would say give us a call. Right. Then we could talk about the specifics. We'd really encourage you to take notes.
Crystal Olvera:Yeah, because this is group two we're talking about, just to remind you all. Group three, group one, group four, they all have different rules.
Jeff Yeagle:Exactly. So just to touch on those real quick. Rule of 80 applies to everybody, and it's calculated the same way. Age in years and months plus service credit in years and months. Group one is the only group that gets to include sick leave and annual leave credit to factor into the rule of 80. And this is all for standard service members. Again, we briefly talked about CO or CPO or LECOs members. They have some different rules for sure. They can retire as soon as they get 20 years of CPO credit or they can be 55 with 10 years. But there's definitely different rules for them for that. So if you're in that sort of position, give us a call for sure to discuss.
Dani Levrie:So thank you for answering that question. second part of the question. There's also a third part of the question. So should I withdraw my Texa$aver 401k and roll into an IRA? Again, everybody's situation is different. You need to be contacting the appropriate individuals, which would be Texas Saver, which is administered by Empower. And also remember that it's also potentially unsafe to be sharing all of this information Yeah, absolutely. We're going to
Crystal Olvera:move on to a section here called Fringe Benefit Fridays. The moderators on this subreddit have created a reoccurring post every Friday. that they have where they encourage the members of the community to post their questions about leave, benefits, PTO, leave programs, state policies, and all other agency specific questions. So the first question that we chose, actually, that we thought was a reoccurring and common one was,
Dani Levrie:I'm paying into the state retirement system quite a bit monthly. Thing is, I won't have enough years putting So someone's response to this question was, I don't think you have the option of opting out of the mandatory ERS deduction for the pension plan. When you do retire, if you don't meet the requirements to receive the state pension, you can take that account balance you have accrued and roll it into another retirement account, such as an IRA.
Crystal Olvera:So to answer the first part of that question, that is correct. You can opt out of your annuity deduction. It is mandatory. Depending on what group you're in, you must be vested in order to retire with the state and receive that pension. And if you leave the state before you're vested, yes, you can withdraw that annuity or you can put it into an IRA. But Jeff has some good advice for those who are thinking that they don't have enough to be vested. Jeff?
Jeff Yeagle:Yeah, absolutely. Chris, what you make a great point is... It depends on your group. And this goes back to one of the very first things we said, you got to know your group. This user did not give us any more detail, but if you're group one or group four, you only need five years of service to be vested for an annuity payment. Groups two and three, you got to have 10. But if we're just talking annuity alone, again, if you're group one or four, you only need five years. The other thing is what's called proportionate retirement. Many members don't realize that when they work for a city or county or school again, that time could potentially be combined with their state service then to make them vested. So don't just assume that you wouldn't qualify for it. I'm going to repeat it again. Give us a call. We're going to ask you a bunch of questions and really paint a full picture to see what your best options are.
Crystal Olvera:Now, let's say you did have like TCDRS or credit with the county or the city. You would need to call that agency or that system in order to have it transferred. How does that work?
Jeff Yeagle:Right. So I love You said the word transferred because there's a huge difference in what we call certified versus transfer. So with proportionate retirement systems such as TCDRS, which is County District Retirement System, or TMRS, which is the Texas Municipal Retirement System, we certify that, meaning we get record of that service and we basically stamp it and say, yep, we'll give you credit in a sense for that. But the money... And service actually stays with that retirement system. And then you can tell them, hey, I also have time with ERS, and they will do the same thing. They'll stamp your ERS time. So what it's doing is allowing you to use credit from more than one retirement system to retire from both retirement systems. So you would want to call us first and say, hey, I have credit with so-and-so. Certain retirement systems we have access to and we can certify on the spot. Others we have to request on your behalf. But again, that same retirement system, call them up and say, I have time with ERS. And they will take the appropriate steps to certify that time with them too. So your money and credit stays with that individual retirement system. But you can use that time to retire from us. It doesn't increase your annuity payment. It just allows you to retire sooner. Potentially it can impact your insurance eligibility, but not always. Now, TRS is different. TRS, if you're group one through three, that can be transferred if you meet certain rules. So that means your time and money gets taken from TRS and put with your ERS account. And we technically do not transfer that until time of retirement or vice versa. Group four cannot transfer time. They can only certify it as proportionate service. So that's a big difference when you transfer it. Not only does it impact your date you're eligible to retire, but it also impacts your time of retirement. It now will increase your annuity payment because we're taking that time and money and putting it into the ERS system. And then it could impact your insurance eligibility as well. And sometimes people have ERS, county, city, and TRS. So you can use a combination of those things. But again, this goes to a lot of people think, well, I took a refund of my county time. It doesn't matter anymore. It does. We don't care that you took a refund of your county time because it would never transfer us anyway in terms of the money. But it still gives you credit towards your eligibility date to retire. So don't just assume that it won't count. And that happens all the time. My coworker says that since I took a refund, it doesn't count. Some systems, it doesn't matter. Some systems it does. But again, come to the experts and we'll tell you.
Dani Levrie:Thanks, Jeff. Redditors, please, please, please listen to the experts. Sure, some of these responses sound correct, but at the end of the day, they are partially correct and the correct answer always depends on your certain situation. Now, here's an amazing question. So important question, in fact. Thank you for thinking about the future and protecting your finances. How do I change my beneficiaries in ERS? I tried and it says form is pending. How do I finalize it?
Jeff Yeagle:I love this question because it happens all the time and I don't know the percentage of non-completed beneficiary selections. So as an active employee, you only qualify for the active account death benefit, which is God forbid you pass away before you retired, the money that you've contributed to retirement plus the interest would be paid out. And if you have at least 10 years, you have different options of how you want that paid out. So you absolutely want want to have at least one beneficiary on file for that. And then also your life insurance. I mean, you can have multiple beneficiaries for that. The $5,000 lump sum death benefit and the annuity options, don't bother clicking on those because those don't get updated until time of retirement, even though the system will allow you to generate that. But here's where the process kind of breaks down is, I don't know about you, but I get tons of emails every day and I don't read most of them or I think they're spam. Well, what happens is when you update your beneficiary form online, we will send you an email with a document that you have to print and manually sign and have witness and send back to us. So a lot of people miss that email in the first place, or they think, well, I selected the same person for both benefits. I only need to fill out one form. Well, if you read the form, it's very minor, but each form is for each in particular benefit. So even if you're selecting the same person for the active account death benefit and the life insurance, there's two different forms that you have to complete. And so make sure you do read those. That would be the best practice. Read them, have them witness, and then you can scan an email and back, fax them back, or mail them back to us. It does take roughly two to three weeks. The times vary for those to officially update. And then it will go from form pending to be completed.
Dani Levrie:So different question, similar. When people are presented this, oftentimes it's presented in their NEO or their orientation. Correct, Jeff? Yeah, absolutely.
Jeff Yeagle:If it says form pending and it's been over a month since you've completed and sent it back, then there's an issue there. But if you never, if you recall, like I never actually printed anything or signed anything, I just thought I did it online, it would change. Well, then you didn't follow the process correctly. But definitely take a look at that because God forbid, again, you passed away and you don't have a beneficiary selected. than any benefits paid out to your estate. You know, if you had a loved one who's dependent upon that, you know, that's a lot more work for them to have to deal with it with already a trying time. So it's best to update that. Key things you need to know is their date of birth and their social security number, because those are required fields you have to complete.
Crystal Olvera:One thing I do remember about beneficiaries is I know it asks for a witness. So that witness cannot be a family member, right? But it can be a co-worker.
Jeff Yeagle:Correct. Can't be a family member cannot be the beneficiary. But co-worker, friend, it does not have to be notarized. We have other documents that have to be, but this particular one does not. So grab your friend when you're talking about things at work. This is one that you can actually do together and it's right. Get those filled out and witness each other's forms and then send them back to us.
Dani Levrie:And potentially don't show them that social security number. I don't have to worry about
Crystal Olvera:it because I'm leaving my money to no one.
Dani Levrie:Wow. Thanks, Jeff. That's actually extremely, actually, as if not all of the other things that came out of your mouth weren't insightful. You are a wealth of knowledge. I
Jeff Yeagle:appreciate it. It's, you know, I think one thing's really important is we're not salespeople, like we're members too. So the rules that we speak to you about apply to us too. And we really try to think about this who's ever at the end of the line. We would want to set them up for success. And that's ultimately the goal is to give everybody all the information that they need to make the best decision. And we understand that that's not your expertise and that's ours. So we may ask a lot of questions to really figure out what you want to do or maybe provide you information that you didn't even think that you needed to know. But, you know, it's most people don't retire more than once. Right. And if you do, great. But most people don't. So just we want to make sure that you're prepared. We understand it's a huge decision in life when you get to that point. But even understanding, well, before you retire, what are your options? How do I make the most of this?
Dani Levrie:Thank you so much, Jeff. I think you hit on an excellent point. And a reason why we're all circled here around microphones and a laptop today, we want y'all to be as informed as possible. So we're constantly finding new avenues, which included going and scouring the internet with these forums to try to get the questions you're asking. So thank you so much, Jeff, for joining us today. Hopefully we have you in the future. And if we don't, I know that you have a trained staff member to come and talk to us. And I know every single person on your team and every individual that is answering these phones are also trained. So please, please, please feel free to call ERS with any of your questions. Our phone numbers?
Jeff Yeagle:877-275-4377.
Dani Levrie:And our phone line hours are?
Jeff Yeagle:Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Standard Time.
Crystal Olvera:I'd like to push our website, of course, ers.texas.gov. We've got a ton of information on there. A lot of the times your questions can be answered just by going through some of the pages. We've got all of our plan administration So if you have a question about coverage, we've got premium rate sheets on there. you do that. And I guess I'd say thank you so much again, Jeff, for sitting with us and answering those questions.
Jeff Yeagle:Great. Loved it.
Dani Levrie:Excellent, everyone. Again, we'd love to hear your thoughts on Money Talks. If you have any questions, any thoughts you'd like to share, don't be afraid to send them our way to story underscore ideas at ers.texas.gov. This information is for informational purposes only and is not not intended to provide investment, legal, or tax recommendations or advice.