Optional Retirement Plan (ORP)

The University of 91ֱ��provides the Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) to faculty, along with non-academic officers and senior administrators. The ORP is a defined contribution (DC) plan. UA is the plan administrator for the ORP. All benefit-eligible employees are required to participate in a retirement account. For information on the Public Employee's Retirement System (PERS) or the Teacher's Retirement System (TRS), please review their respective webpages.

ORP Enrollment

Eligibility

Faculty

Faculty who are in a benefit-eligible position will choose between the Teacher's Retirement System (TRS) and the Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) within 30 days of hire into an eligible position as long as they have never had the option to select ORP in a previous position with the university.

Academic Officer / Non- Academic Officer / Senior Administrator

Academic officers, non-academic officers, or senior administrators may choose between PERS/TRS and ORP within 30 days of hire into an eligible position as long as they have never had the option to select ORP in a previous position with the university.

Staff

Staff are not eligible for ORP unless they have selected ORP with prior employment at UA. Staff participate in PERS.

Temporary employees

Temporary employees are not eligible to participate in PERS, TRS, ORP or the UA Pension Plan. Temporary employees can participate in a 403(b). Review our 403(b) webpage for more information.

Enrolling & Making Changes

Retirement election paperwork is sent to employees via DocuSign. This is a one-time decision in all except rare cases.

New or returning benefit-eligible employees

Irrevocable decision in first 30 days

Election due in first 30 days

Retirement elections are irrevocable. New benefit-eligible employees will be provided with their retirement election paperwork within their first 30 days of hire.

Returing after a break in service

The irrevocable decision means that, if an employee selects the ORP, this decision cannot be changed as long as they are employed at the university - even if they separate from the university and return after a break in service.

Returning/transferring between faculty & staff

If returning after a break in service - or transferring to another employee class position without a break in service - employees will automatically retain their ORP selection. No new retirement election will be made.

Mandatory participation

Participation in a retirement plan is mandatory for all benefit-eligible positions.

Reminder | The default

If there is a choice between more than one retirement plan, the choice must be made within 30 days of hire. If no election is made, employees will automatically default into PERS or TRS depending on the nature of the position. If the ORP is selected and no fund sponsor is subsequently elected, TIAA will be the default plan sponsor.

Current benefit-eligible employees

Irrevocable decision

Retirement elections cannot be changed except in very specific circumstances when an employee is transferring positions between certain employee classes. Depending on prior elections, an employee moving employee classes (i.e. from faculty to staff) may receive an option to change their retirement plan.

Transferring positions? Reach out to ua-benefits@alaska.edu

If an employee is transferring positions within UA (between temporary, staff, faculty, or executive) and they have prior service with the ORP, no new retirement election will be provided. Employees will automatically retain their ORP.

Changing fund sponsor

Review the drop down below to learn how to change a fund sponsor.

Temporary Employees

Only eligible for voluntary 403(b)

Review our 403(b) webpage for more information.

Transferring Positions? Reach out to ua-benefits@alaska.edu

If a temporary employee is transferring to a benefit-eligible position, they will receive retirement depending on prior work history and elections. Email ua-benefits@alaska.edu for additional information.

Find retirement plan

Review the options below to get an idea of retirement options depending on past service with the university or the State of Alaska. Official retirement selections will be sent to by a member of the UA Benefits team. For questions, please email ua-benefits@alaska.edu.


Work Status	Retirement Plan
I am faculty and I have never worked for the University of 91ֱ��or any State of 91ֱ��employer before.	I will choose between TRS and ORP within my first 30 days.
I am a non-academic officer or senior administrator and I have never worked for the University of 91ֱ��or any State of 91ֱ��employer before.	I will choose between PERS and ORP within my first 30 days.
I am faculty and I have worked for the University of 91ֱ��before in a faculty benefit-eligible position.	My retirement plan will be the plan I previously selected (either ORP or TRS with or without UA Pension Plan).
I am a non-academic officer or senior administrator and I have worked for the University of 91ֱ��before in an ORP-eligible position.	My retirement plan will be the plan I previously selected (either ORP or TRS/PERS with or without UA Pension Plan).
I am faculty and I have worked for the University of 91ֱ��before in a staff benefit-eligible position.	If I previously selected ORP with my staff position, I will be placed back in ORP. If I have never had the option to select ORP with my previous position, I will be given the option now between ORP and TRS.
I am faculty and I have worked for a State of 91ֱ��employer before (either faculty or staff) but this is my first faculty position with the University of Alaska.	My retirement plan will be my previous TRS plan if I was a faculty member. If I was previously staff with another State of 91ֱ��employer, I will choose between TRS and ORP within my first 30 days.
I am working in any benefit-eligible position and I have worked for the University of 91ֱ��before and participated in ORP.	I will be placed back in ORP.

Changing fund sponsor

Change fund sponsors anytime

Employees in ORP may change fund sponsors at any time using the Fund Sponsor Enrollment Form.

No affect on previous contributions

Once submitted, the change will affect where new contributions are deposited and will not transfer account balances from the old fund sponsor to the new fund sponsor.

Transfer funds or leave them

Employees may keep the accounts separate or consolidate accounts. To combine funds, employees will need to contact the previous fund sponsor and request a rollover form to transfer the balance from the previous fund sponsor to the new fund sponsor.

No other retirement changes allowed

Employees may change their fund sponsor only. They may not change their retirement plan from the ORP to either PERS or TRS once they have selected the ORP.

Changing retirement plan, contribution amount(s) or contribution type

These changes are not allowed.

Coverage Begin & End Dates

First / last day of employment
Coverage and contributions begin on the first day of employment and end on the last day of employment or on the last day of employment in an eligible position.

Form

Election forms are sent via DocuSign. Fund sponsors can be updated using the Fund Sponsor Enrollment Form.

ORP Basics

Plans

There are three ORP Tiers depending on the date of hire into an ORP-eligible position.


ORP Tier	Dates of Eligibility
ORP Tier I	Hired into ORP through June 30, 2005.
ORP Tier II	Hired into the ORP from July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006.
ORP Tier III	Hired into the ORP on or after July 1, 2006.

Fund sponsors

The university partners with four fund sponsors to manage the ORP and UA Pension Plan:

TIAA
Fidelity
Lincoln
VALIC/Corebridge

Want to change the fund sponsor?
To learn about changing the fund sponsor, review the drop down under "Enrolling & Making Changes."


Fidelity Contact Information	Lincoln Financial Contact Information	TIAA Contact Information	VALIC/Corebridge Contact Information
P.O. Box 770001 Cincinnati, OH 45277-0037 1-800-343-0860 Fidelity has to help UA employees with their retirement goals. with one of UA's dedicated financial consultants with Fidelity.	P.O. Box 21008 Greensboro, NC 27420-1008 1-800-348-1212 Local Anchorage number: 907-561-3187 Local Fairbanks number: 907-452-6393	P.O. Box 1259 Charlotte, NC 28201 1-800-842-2776	P.O. BOX 15648 Amarillo, TX 79105-5648 1-800-448-2542 Local Anchorage number: 907-250-4770 Local Fairbanks number: 907-251-5510

Beneficiaries

Contact the fund sponsor
It is the employee's responsibility to maintain accurate beneficiary records with their fund sponsor (TIAA, Fidelity, Lincoln, VALIC/Corebridge).

ORP Details

Employer contributions

The University of 91ֱ��contributes the following percentages depending on the ORP Tier:


ORP Tier	Employee Contribution
ORP Tier I	14% employer contributions
ORP Tier II	12% employer contributions
ORP Tier III	12% employer contributions

Employee contributions

Employee contributions are mandatory when participating in ORP. These percentages are fixed and cannot be changed. Employee contributions depend on the ORP Tier:


ORP Tier	Employee Contribution
ORP Tier I	8.65% employee contributions
ORP Tier II	8.65% employee contributions
ORP Tier III	8% employee contributions

Vesting schedule

Employees are 100% vested in the employee contributions they make to their retirement account. Employer contributions follow the vesting schedule shown below.


ORP Tier	Years of Service	Employer Vesting Percent
ORP Tier I	NA	Automatically vested in all employer contributions
ORP Tier II	NA	Automatically vested in all employer contributions
ORP Tier III	Less than 3 years of service	0% vested in employer contributions If a non-vested employee leaves the university and returns to a benefit eligible position with one year of separation, vesting will continue where the employee left off. If a non-vested employee leaves the university and does not return within one year of separation, the three year vesting schedule will start over.
ORP Tier III	3+ years of service	100% vested in employer contributions

In-service distributions

Not allowed
In-service withdraws are not allowed. This includes hardship distributions and/or loans against the account. There are a few age-based exceptions, as required. Review "Planning and/or applying for retirement" below.

Income in retirement

Market gain/loss
The ORP is a Defined Contribution (DC) plan. DC plans are account-based plans where the employee and employer contributions are invested into mutual funds or money market funds where they grow tax-deferred until withdrawn.

Financial advice

UA is not authorized
UA is not authorized to provide financial advice to employees. Please contact the fund sponsor directly to discuss.

Planning and/or applying for retirement

Separated from all service for 45 Days and age 59.5+

Per IRS guidelines, withdraws from the ORP can begin with the member is age 59.5. Withdraws prior to age 59.5 may face additional tax penalties for early withdraw. Withdraws can only be made from the ORP after a former employee has been fully separated from service for at lease 45 calendar days. Review the offboarding webpage for up-to-date information.

Employed in a temporary position and age 60+

An employee participating in the ORP who reaches the age of 60 and is still employed by the university may withdraw funds from the ORP only if in a non-participating position (i.e. is in a position not eligible for retirement). Review the offboarding webpage for up-to-date information.

Employed in any position and age 70.5+

An employee participating in the ORP who reaches age 70.5+ and is still employed by the university may withdraw funds from the ORP while in any position. This may mean that the employee is contributing to the ORP while also making withdraws from the account. Review the offboarding webpage for up-to-date information.

No medical benefits

There are no medical benefits associated with the ORP. The University contributes 12% to this retirement plan (vs. 5% and 7% for PERS and TRS respectively) to assist with obtaining independent medical coverage in retirement.

Separating from the university but not retiring

Review offboarding webpage
Employees who are separating from the university (but are not retiring) have a few different considerations for their ORP accounts. Review the offboarding webpage for information on separating from the university.

FORMS

Retirement forms are prepared and sent to new employees via DocuSign after attending a Benefits Overview.
Fund Sponsor Enrollment Form

91ֱ��

Benefits & Compensation

Retirement