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- Notify your supervisor of your retirement date…
- No later than 2 weeks prior to retirement date for Non-Exempt employees.
- No later than 30 days prior to retirement date for Exempt employees.
Review the Employee Handbook for additional information.
- Check out this Action Plan from Transamerica for a successful transition into retirement.
Review Separating Employees.
During the year prior to retirement
Attend a Benefits Retirement Ready Seminar generally held in early March.
Review the benefits estimator.
Social Security: Review Retirement Income Calculator.
- Review and update beneficiaries with your retirement and life insurance plans. These beneficiary forms take precedence over your will for employer sponsored plans.
- Establish or review your:
- Last will or living trust to provides instructions on how to distribute your assets and lets you name guardians for children.
- Power of attorney which names a person to handle your finances should something ever happen to you.
- Living will (advance healthcare directive). Your wishes for life-saving measures and who will make medical decisions for you.
- Create a personal document list to store your important records, papers, and primary contacts and tell your loved ones where it's located. Click here for Transamerica's template.
6+ months prior to your planned retirement date
- Confirm your retirement eligibility to retire with the Director of designation of "SPU staff retiree" with Human Resources, hr@spu.edu.
- Schedule an appointment with Transamerica to discuss your distribution options. A Transamerica retirement planning consultant is available for individual appointments once a quarter.
- If you are participating in the Health Savings Account (HSA), stop your both SPU and your personal HSA contributions at least 6-months before enrolling in any part of Medicare or starting your Social Security benefits. HSA Change Form If you have additional question questions on whether to enroll in Medicare and you are contributing to the HSA, go to this link to go through a decision guide.
- Consider enrolling in SPU’s medical plan with a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) during the open enrollment period of the prior year before you retire.
- Confirm your beneficiary designations are up-to-date.
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- Social Security Enrollment (if applicable): Three months prior to retirement, enroll online at ssa.gov and complete the online Apply for Retirement Benefits.
- Medicare Enrollment (if applicable): Three months prior to retirement, enroll online at ssa.gov. Otherwise contact Social Security or go to a local Social Security office to enroll in Medicare Part A and B. If you will not be enrolling in Medicare during your Initial Enrollment Period because you were actively employed and covered on qualified group coverage such as SPU's medical plan, then you will qualify to enroll under Medicare's Special circumstanceCircumstance (Special Enrollment Periods). You will have an 8-month special enrollment period to sign up for Part A and/or Part B that starts at one of these times (whichever happens first):
The month after your employment ends
- The month after group health plan insurance based on current employment ends (through either SPU or your spouse's group health plan).
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