Paying for IMRF Past Service Credit

If you have already applied for service and received your payment schedule, be sure to read the following sections of this booklet:

• Understanding your past service payment schedule
• The impact purchasing service will have on your future pension
• Will it be “worth it” to purchase my past service?
• Paying for past service

IMRF makes it easy to purchase past service

IMRF offers several payment options:

• Lump Sum Payment Plan—Purchase all or a portion of your service with one payment.
  
• Unit Payment Plan—Purchase one or more months at a time.
  
• Rollovers from other qualified retirement plans. (Under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, if you are eligible to upgrade existing service, you can pay for the upgrade using rollovers from 457 and 403(b) deferred compensation plans and from traditional IRA accounts. Previously, a member could not use a rollover to upgrade existing service.)

Application for Service and Payments

You must be actively participating in IMRF to be eligible to purchase service. In some cases, and for some types of service, you may also be eligible to purchase service if you are participating in an Illinois Reciprocal System.

• To apply for any service, your application must be received by our office prior to termination of IMRF or Reciprocal System employment.
• To apply for the Tax-deferred Payroll Deduction Program (TPDP) your signed contract must be received by our office prior to your termination.

Once you stop participating in IMRF or a reciprocal system, you may make ONLY ONE PAYMENT to purchase your IMRF service credit.

100% return of contributions

Like all IMRF member contributions, when you make contributions to purchase past service, you are guaranteed a 100% return of those contributions in the form of a pension or refund, or your beneficiaries will receive them as part of the IMRF death benefit.