Retirement Certification Reminder
At the end of the school year, Retirement Certifications generate many questions. Below is a brief FAQ of the most common questions. Timely and accurate completion of the Retirement Certification ensures that your employees receive their TRS retirement as soon as possible. If you encounter any difficulties or have additional questions, please contact your RE Coach for assistance.
When will the Retirement Certification be sent?
Retirement certifications are sent when two conditions are met:
The application has been received AND processed by TRS.
The retirement date has passed.
Retirements certifications will generally show up on the first of the month AFTER the retirement date has passed. For example, if the employee has a retirement date of May 31, 2026, the certification will not be added to your RE Worklist until June 1, 2026, at the earliest. It may show up later if the employee’s retirement paperwork is still being processed by TRS.
Employees must terminate all TRS-covered employment to be eligible to retire. This includes but is not limited to temporary employment, summer school, less than half-time, and substitute employment. REs should be careful not to create a contract after the termination date just to report pay accrued prior to the employee’s termination. Unnecessary contracts can delay the retirement process.
Make sure that you use an accurate termination date. Do not back date the termination and do not automatically extend it to the end of the month. For example, an employee has a regular school year contract through May 31, 2026, but the employee terminates on April 15, 2026. The termination date entered on the certification will be April 15, 2026 since this is the date the employee has ended their employment with your employer.
Retirement Certifications can only be completed once an eligible employee has been paid their final paycheck and there is no TRS-eligible compensation remaining. If the employee was not in a TRS- eligible position, the retirement certification can be completed once the employee has been paid their final check. For example, if someone retires May 31 but receives their last paycheck on Aug. 15, the earliest this certification can be completed is Aug. 16, provided a review has been done to determine that no further TRS-eligible compensation is due to the employee.
The member’s retirement cannot be finalized until after the final pay has been reported to TRS via the Regular Payroll report. Completing the retirement certification in the month the final pay is issued should not delay their retirement. Submitting the retirement certification before the final eligible compensation is reported does not speed up the process and could delay the members retirement, as TRS would need to verify additional information with the employer.
You are receiving this certification because the employment was never closed with an ED90 termination record on the TRS system. Please complete the Retirement Certification based on the last year worked at your RE. ED90 records must be submitted by REs anytime an employee terminates all employment, regardless of the termination reason. If the termination date occurred before September 2019, submit the ED90, then contact your RE Coach for assistance removing the Retirement Certification.
Yes. An ED90 should still be submitted for all employees once the retirement certification has been completed. Employers must still submit an ED90 termination record to close out any open employment. This requirement applies to all employees, including both TRS-eligible and TRS-ineligible employees. The termination date entered on the ED90 must match the termination date entered on the certification. Employer must also include the final report month on the ED90. Please enter the six-digit final report month (MM/YYYY) that corresponds to when the employee received their final paycheck, even if the employee was working in an ineligible position.
This error means there are days reported for a report month after the termination date entered. Use the View Employee Information screen to review the posted RP transactions for your RE to determine if any days/hours were reported in a report month after the termination date. If incorrect days/ hours were reported, please submit an RP25 to remove them. Allow the RP25 record to reach a completed status, then submit certification. If you continue to receive this error or if the member worked after their termination date, please reach out to your RE coach.
Please contact your RE Coach via email. Include the member’s full name and a brief explanation of what needs to be updated. Your coach will review the information to determine if a new Retirement Certification is needed.
You can find additional information in the RE Portal Certification Guide and the Retirement Certification Presentation.