Before you click to continue, READ THIS PAGE!

At this time, you should be here because your employer has registered you in our online MyTRS system and provided you with your “Mandatory Online Enrollment” worksheet.

During this enrollment process—which should only take five to ten minutes to complete—you will be asked to provide us with certain demographic information (for actuarial and benefit administration purposes) as well as your prior service history, if any, with the MTRS or another Massachusetts contributory retirement system. Whether you are an educator who is joining the MTRS for the first time, an existing MTRS member who is changing school districts, or a former or inactive MTRS member who is returning to active service, you need to complete our online enrollment process so that we may establish and maintain your MTRS retirement records and annuity savings account.

This is important, time-sensitive information:
Be aware of how recent pension reform legislation affects your cost to purchase certain types of creditable service

As you may know, Chapter 176 of the Acts of 2011, also known as “Pension Reform III,” made significant changes to the structure of the Commonwealth’s public retirement plan and, for certain types of service purchases, doubled the interest rate charged. The service purchases subject to increased interest are those for:

  • refund buybacks (which are the repayment, with interest, of funds withdrawn by members from their former Massachusetts public retirement systems),
  • Massachusetts substitute, temporary or part-time teaching or tutoring service,
  • out-of-state public teaching service,
  • teaching service rendered at a U.S. Department of Defense overseas dependent school,
  • nonpublic, private school teaching service prior to 1973 (out-of-state or in Massachusetts), and
  • other Massachusetts nonmembership public employment.

Pursuant to Chapter 176, depending on your membership history and the date you apply to purchase certain types of creditable service, the interest charged will be either “buyback” interest (currently, 4.125%) or “actuarial” interest (currently, 8.25%). Specifically, if you are:

  • Either a brand NEW or a CURRENT member of a Massachusetts public retirement system whose effective membership date is before April 2, 2013 (one year from the effective date of Chapter 176): You will be charged buyback interest if your service purchase application is received by the MTRS on or before April 2, 2013 and you either pay for the purchase in full or commit to an installment agreement on or before April 2, 2013, or the invoice due date, whichever is later. On and after April 2, 2013, you will be charged actuarial interest.
    [Current installment plan participants: If you are currently paying for a service purchase by way of our five-year installment plan with an interest rate of 4.125%, your installment plan interest rate will remain at 4.125% for the term of your agreement, or, if you should miss a payment, when you default, whichever comes first.]
  • A FORMER member of a Massachusetts public retirement system who re-entered membership anytime on or after April 2, 2012: You will be charged buyback interest if your service purchase application is received by the MTRS within one year of your date of re-entry to membership and you either pay for the purchase in full or commit to an installment agreement by the first anniversary of your date of re-entry, or the invoice due date, whichever is later. If you apply to purchase or pay for this service after your first year of re-entry to membership, you will be charged actuarial interest.

For detailed information on what creditable service is and how it is credited or purchased, please see Creditable service.

Man holding a stop sign

BEFORE CONTINUING, PLEASE READ THESE THREE IMPORTANT TECHNICAL WARNINGS

  1. Ensure that you are using a compatible browser: Our online enrollment process is compatible with two browsers ONLY: Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. (Safari for Apple will not work, and Google Chrome may not allow you to print your confirmation form.) If you do not have access to a computer with either of these, you may download these browsers from Microsoft or Mozilla, or ask your payroll officer for assistance in completing this process.
  2. Do NOT use your browser’s Back button during the process, as it may prevent your data from being submitted and you will need to start over: As you will see, there is a “Back” button on each screen of the online enrollment tool. If, before you finish the online enrollment process, you need to go back to a previous screen, use the onscreen Back buttons—not your browser’s Back button. If, after you complete the process, you find that you need to correct something that you have submitted, please sign in anew and complete the process again; your second submission will overwrite your first.
  3. If your Massachusetts certification/license number includes a letter, do NOT enter the letter online: In rare instances, Massachusetts certification/license numbers include alphabetic characters. If yours includes a letter, please enter your number omitting the letter, and then send an e-mail to us at enrollsupport@trb.state.ma.us with your name and full certification number, and we will update your record. If you forget and enter a letter in the certification/license field, it is likely that your online session will freeze or your data will not submit properly, and you will need to start again.

I have read the above information on the interest charged on creditable service purchases and the three technical warnings.