The next regular Board Meeting will be held on Thursday, June 20, 2019. Meetings are streamed live on TRS' website and are normally available for on-demand viewing within two business days. Meeting summaries are also available.

When you file for retirement, TRS will provide a receipt that you should submit to your employer when you apply for retiree health benefits. The employer will not accept your health benefits application without this receipt, so please visit TRS first.

During June, representatives from the Department of Education will be at TRS' Member Services Center to receive health benefits applications from retiring employees. The DOE representatives are scheduled to be present each business day from June 6 through June 28 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. They usually meet with retiring employees in a group, with the last group being seen at about 4:00. Members who are age 65 or older will need to show a copy of their Medicare card or award letter in order to meet with the DOE representatives.

Please keep this information in mind when planning your visit to TRS to file for retirement!

Monthly Account Statements as of April 30, 2019 are now available through the secure section of our website.

In-service members can access their account balances, loan information, and investment elections. Members with TDA Deferral status can access their TDA account balances, investment elections, and loan and RMD information.

Account statements for the period ending March 31, 2019 are now available for online viewing in the secure section of our website.

The Quarterly Account Statement (QAS), for in-service members and certain members on leave, summarizes account information for members' Qualified Pension Plan and, if applicable, Tax-Deferred Annuity Program accounts.

The TDA Quarterly Statement, for members with TDA Deferral status, summarizes TDA account information for members who are maintaining a TDA account after retirement (or, in some cases, resignation).

Printed statements have been mailed to members' home addresses. If you currently receive your quarterly statements in the mail, consider opting out of the mailing and viewing the statement online instead. To change your mailing preference, select My Profile after logging in to the secure section of our website. To ensure that you receive emails from TRS, please add noreply@trs.nyc.ny.us to your address book.

TRS is pleased to introduce online options for many common payments to TRS. Members who are paying for a service deficit, purchasing credit for optional service, making a loan payment, or paying off a loan balance can now enjoy the convenience of online payment options. Other payment types will be added in the future.

Members can choose to pay by "e-check" from a bank account, or by debit or credit card. (An additional fee is applied to credit and debit card payments.) When you log into the secure section of our website, you can visit the new "Online Payments" section to see if there is any payment that you can make online.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced 2019 contribution limits for retirement plans such as TRS' TDA Program. The general contribution limit will increase from $18,500 in 2018 to $19,000 in 2019.

The limits on "catch-up" contributions in 2019 remain unchanged:

• Members age 50 and older may make additional contributions up to $6,000.
• Certain members with at least 15 years of City employment may be eligible to make additional contributions up to $3,000.

Based on these rules, each year TRS determines the maximum allowable TDA contribution amount for each member. We also calculate the contribution rate (percentage of pay) that would result in the maximum contribution. That rate is known as the "Full-Year, Full-Contribution Rate."

You can now see—or elect—your 2019 Full-Year, Full-Contribution Rate after logging in to the secure section of our website. Rates elected by December 16 should take effect with the first payroll of the new year.

Early in 2019, TRS will introduce a new online feature for death benefit claims, which will provide convenient, secure filing and faster benefit processing for many claimants. This November, we are beginning the transition to our new system. As a result, beneficiaries may experience a delay in receiving a benefits claim letter, which TRS sends after receiving needed documentation and calculating benefits payable.

Processing death benefit claims can normally take several weeks (or months for in-service members), and we apologize for any delay during this transitional period.

To report the death of a member, please contact TRS’ Member Services Center at 1 (888) 8-NYC-TRS. For additional information about death benefits, please see our brochure for beneficiaries of retirees, or for beneficiaries of non-retired, members.

Qualifying members who worked in the World Trade Center Rescue, Recovery, or Cleanup Operations between September 11, 2001 and September 12, 2002 may file a Notice of Participation (code DI40) with TRS. Beneficiaries of qualifying members who died without having filed this form may file the beneficiary version of the Notice of Participation (code DI40b). TRS must now receive the Notice of Participation and, if applicable, an Authorization for Release of Health-Related Information (code DI47) by September 11, 2018.

Please see the World Trade Center Presumptive Disability and Death Benefit Laws information sheet for a list of qualifying conditions or impairments of health and other important information.