If you left your IMRF employer recently (or not so recently), it is important to consider how you can best use the contributions you made to your retirement through IMRF to maximize your income in retirement.
Fully Vested in IMRF
If you are fully vested with a Tier 1 or Tier 2 pension, you don’t have to do anything. Be sure to keep track of when you will become eligible to receive your pension based on your pension tier to get the most from the benefits that you earned. Learn more by watching our Pre-Retirement Workshop here.
Not Yet Vested in IMRF
If you aren’t vested in your pension, you can either leave your contributions with IMRF or take a separation refund.
Keeping Your Contributions at IMRF
If you think you are likely to work for another IMRF employer or a reciprocal system employer in the future, you may want to leave your IMRF contributions in place in order to retain your earned years of service credit toward your future pension.
Some examples of this could include:
- Working as a paraprofessional in one school district before moving to another.
- Working for a school district before taking a job with a county in Illinois.
- Working for a county and later deciding to work for a state university.
By keeping your service credit at IMRF, you would be able to retire with benefits earned at your first employer and the benefits earned through additional IMRF employers or through employers that participate in another public pension system in Illinois.
Learn more about reciprocal service here.
Taking a Refund
If you left your IMRF employer and do not plan on working for another IMRF employer in the future, you may be interested in taking a refund.
When you take a refund of your IMRF contributions, you forfeit all your service credit, and you give up your right to any future IMRF pension and death benefits.
You can apply for a refund directly in your Member Access account. Learn more here.
Making the Best Decision for Your Retirement
The decision you make about what to do is a personal one and there is no deadline for you to make this choice. Learn more about the options after leaving an IMRF employer here.
If you have questions about your IMRF benefits, find your Member Statement, which has an explanation of all of your benefits, in your Member Access account.
New Member Access Account
Do you have an email on file at IMRF? If so, watch this video to learn how to self-register for your new Member Access account.