About Contribution Rates

Employee Contributions
Contributions to the fund are made by you and your employer. Contribution rates for both the employee and employer are determined by outside actuaries. Contributions are taken as payroll deductions. You will also receive an annual Member statement (shortly after your birthday month) and it will report your accumulated contributions.

Your contribution is based on the following factors:

Your entry age
Your years of service credit (your employer may pick up part or all of the cost of your contributions after a certain time)
Whether you choose refundable or nonrefundable contributions
Your plan (General or Safety)

Contribution rates change based on the fund's outside actuaries' annual studies of the rates. The Board of Retirement recommends contribution rate increases or decreases on the basis of those studies.

You may not increase your contributions or add to them with other funds. As noted earlier, this is a defined benefit plan. Your eventual retirement benefit will be calculated according to a formula. Increasing your contributions would not increase your retirement allowance.

Contributions are taken as a percentage of your earnable compensation. Included are bonuses and merit pay, shift differentials and allowances for uniforms and automobiles, to name a few examples. Note that your retirement contribution will be taken even from a partial paycheck, if the paycheck amount is sufficient to cover the entire contribution. No contribution will be taken if the entire contribution cannot be taken.

Excluded from contribution calculations, however, are overtime pay and accrual payoffs upon termination, among others. If you are interested in whether a particular item in your pay will be included, please contact your employer. The types of pay included for contribution purposes are the same types of pay included in the compensation earnable used to determine your retirement allowance when you retire.

You will contribute to your retirement fund throughout your career with your SBCERA-covered employer. There are three exceptions to this requirement that will nullify your requirement to make further contributions to the plan:

Achieving 30 years of continuous service with the County of San Bernardino or another employer in the SBCERA system; or
If you were a SBCERA member on March 7, 1973, with 30 years of total service eligibility including reciprocal time and/or PPAS time; or
If you were a SBCERA member on or after April 9, 2002, with 30 years of service including reciprocal time (PPAS time is not included).

Your employer may pick up a percentage of the cost of your employee contributions, or it may pay a dollar amount toward the cost of your employee contributions.

If you leave employment and are then rehired by a SBCERA-covered employer, your entry age from your earlier employment will be used if you are rehired within 90 days and your contributions remained on deposit, or if you redeposit them within 180 days. If more than 90 days have lapsed, then your age on your birthday closest to your rehire date will be used.

Refundable vs. Nonrefundable Contributions
The difference between refundable and nonrefundable contributions is defined by how much you contribute and what happens if you leave your job before you have earned five years of service credit:

If you choose nonrefundable contributions, you contribute at a lower rate, but you are not entitled to a refund of any non-refundable contributions or interest earned on those contributions if you terminate employment with an employer participating in SBCERA.
If you choose refundable contributions, you contribute at a higher rate ($1 for every $1 required). However, you are entitled to a full refund of your employee contributions and the interest they earned (minus the applicable withdrawal charge) if you terminate employment with an employer participating in SBCERA.
If you leave employment and you have made both refundable and nonrefundable contributions, you will be able to get a refund only for the portion attributable to the refundable contributions.

You have the opportunity to change from nonrefundable to refundable-or refundable to nonrefundable-once a year, at open enrollment time. Please note, however, that any nonrefundable contributions you make and the interest on them remain nonrefundable, even if you later switch to making refundable contributions.

Employer Contributions
Employer contribution percentages vary by employer and plan membership. Employer contributions are not refundable to the employee at any time.

Annual Member Statements
Your Member Statement will show personal information (for example, your date of birth, date of membership, years of service credit, plan and membership status), as well as your current account balance, activity for the last year and projected benefits. It will also reflect any service purchase contracts and established reciprocal relationships.

Your current account balance will reflect only your refundable contributions (including any portion picked up by your employer) and the interest credited on them. Projected benefits will be based on your current compensation-they do not factor in possible pay increases between now and the time you retire.

Active members are sent a statement once a year, at the beginning of the month following their birthdays. Deferred members are sent their statements in the month of July every year. You should check your statement carefully and report any errors to the SBCERA staff.

Access to Your Contributions
The Retirement Plan does not allow you to borrow from your account, nor may you withdraw money while you are still working for a participating employer or under a reciprocal arrangement. If you terminate your employment with a participating employer, you may take a refund of your accumulated refundable contributions and the interest credited on them. See the "Termination Before Retirement" section for more information.

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