MTRS Pension Calculator

Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System (MTRS) Pension Benefit Calculator, Tier 1 and Tier 2

 

This free, online Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System calculator gives you an estimate of your MTRS pension retirement benefits (including interactions of inflation and your COLA) based on the information you input about your salary, years of service, and retirement age and date. It works for both Tier 1 and Tier 2 members. It takes into account whether you are a RetirementPlus participant or a military veteran. This is the only MTRS calculator available that shows you the effects of your MTRS cost-of-living-adjustments (COLA) and inflation on your annual pension benefits over time. A SERS calculator with inflation and COLA calculations is here, and  a unique MA State Police Group 3 online calculator is also available.

 

Attorney Rueschemeyer mediates divorces, including pension division, for ALL Massachusetts counties and courts.

 

The MTRS emphasizes that the formulas used in calculators such as these give approximations or estimations of retirement benefits. Actual retirement benefits will be determined by MTRS at the time of retirement. To see how marital property is divided in divorce, see this page. You can see the most complete description on the web of how MA state pensions are treated in divorce here.

 

You can see actual dollar figures when MTRS pensions are divided in divorce with this unique MA state pension division calculator.

 

If you need to divide your MTRS pension for divorce, Attorney Rueschemeyer can draft the required DRO (Domestic Relations Order). (You can download a 40-page guide about MTRS pensions in divorce here.) Finally, you can see how much your pension is worth today as a lump sum, by doing a present value calculation.

 

You may find this calculator easier to use than other MTRS calculators because this calculator:

 

  • figures out the Option C participant and beneficiary “closest age” automatically, rather than giving you confusing diagrams and instructions where you are likely to make mistakes;
  • does not make you re-enter all your data after you view the results and want to change a single field; and
  • allows you to see, side-by-side, what your retirement benefits would be with and without purchased service.

 

How Your COLA and Inflation Will Affect Your Annual Benefit Over Time

 

You may find this calculator valuable for financial planning because it includes calculations showing the value of your projected MTRS pension in today’s dollars for each year until you reach age 100. The MTRS COLA–3% of the first $13,000–only protects the first $13,000 of your pension from inflation each year. The rest of your pension will lose value quickly because of inflation.

 

Take the example of a 49-year-old teacher in 2019 who projects retiring at age 60 with 25 years of service and a high 3-year salary average of $85,000. The Option A annual pension amount will be $42,500. By age 65, the face value of the annual payment will grow slightly, through the COLA, to $43,865. In today’s (2019) dollars, however, that annual payment will only be worth $27,206 at age 65. At age 75, the pension will only be worth $22,050 in 2019 dollars; at age 85, $17, 753; and at age 90, $15,895. You can see all the figures from this COLA-inflation example here.

 

You can do your own calculations below and download your own .pdf report showing the year-by-year effects of COLA and inflation on your future annual pension benefits. You can change the projected inflation rate, if you like, and you can choose what annual pension benefit (i.e., Option A, B, or C) you would like it to calculate.

 

MTRS Tier 1 versus Tier 2 Calculators and Retirement Percentage Charts

 

Choose between the Tier 1 calculator and the Tier 2 calculator below. Tier 1 members have membership dates before April 2, 2012. Tier 2 members have dates on or after April 2, 2012. These calculators will not produce estimates for disability, termination, or MA “Special Spousal” benefits.

 

You can download the Tier 1 Retirement Percentage Chart or the Tier 2 Retirement Percentage Chart here.

 

You can learn more about MTRS retirement at the state site: https://mtrs.state.ma.us/

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