ARE YOU A BENEFICIARY OR A DESIGNEE?
This following information is for individuals who are qualified as either beneficiaries or designees. If you have questions regarding this, please call our office at 214-580-7700 or contact us here.
BENEFICIARY
To be classified as a beneficiary, you must be either the member's spouse, qualified parent, minor child(ren) or disabled child(ren).
By Texas state law, the spouse is the primary beneficiary unless he or she signed and had notarized a Spousal Waiver Form to waive the benefit at the time of the member's retirement.
A qualified parent must be over 65 or a dependent of the ERF member.
Minor children are considered beneficiaries until they reach the age of 18. After 18 minor children are considered adults and only qualify to be designees. Adopted children and any child that an ERF member is a legal guardian of are also considered beneficiaries.
To qualify as a beneficiary, disabled children must have been legally designated as disabled prior to the age of 18.
DESIGNEE
ERF members may list any friend, family member or organization as a designee. If you have been named as a designee by an ERF member, your benefit will be based on the current value of any remaining payments due in the ten-year guarantee period.
Because ERF members can list multiple designees, this benefit can be divided among several individuals and/or organizations.
ERF PENSION
ERF is a defined benefit plan for City of Dallas permanent, civilian employees. The plan provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to Fund members and their beneficiaries.
Any employee who has contributed to the Fund for five years is considered to be vested in the Fund. Tier A members age 60 and over and Tier B members age 65 and over are vested in the Fund.
If you are under age 60 and you leave the City before completing five years of service, you are not vested and must take a refund of your contributions or roll them over into another qualified plan.
All permanent, civilian City of Dallas employees are members of ERF. You don't need to enroll; your contributions to the Fund are automatically deducted from your payroll.
You are not eligible to participate in the Fund if you are an elected or non-salaried appointed official, a contract employee, an employee working less than 20 hours per week and not contributing to the Fund or a uniformed employee of the Police or Fire Department.
Both you and the City make contributions to the Fund; the City contributes 63% and employees contribute 37% of the total contribution rate. The City makes their contribution to the Fund on behalf of its members. City employees do not participate in the Federal Social Security System.
Effective October 1, 2020, the contribution rate for employees is 13.32% and the City's contribution rate is 22.68%.
All eligible employees contribute the same percentage of their wages.
MEET WITH A BENEFITS COUNSELOR
To ensure there is no delay in receiving your benefit, we suggest you meet with a Pension Specialist at ERF to help determine your status as a beneficiary or designee.Prior to your appointment, ERF staff will review the member’s records and calculate any pension benefit or other payments you may be owed.
BENEFICIARY PAYMENT OPTIONS
Beneficiaries receive a monthly benefit just as the member would. There are three payment options for beneficiaries.
This option pays the member full, unreduced benefits for their lifetime.
If the member dies before receiving 10 years or 120 monthly payments, the member’s beneficiary receives the same monthly benefit for the balance of the 120 months.
One-Half Survivor
For TIER A members, this option pays the member unreduced benefits for their lifetime. After the Tier A member’s death, the beneficiary receives one-half of the member’s monthly benefit for the rest of their life.
If both the member and the beneficiary die before 120 monthly payments have been made, the current value of the balance of the 120 monthly payments will be made to one or more designees or to the estate, if there are no designees.
Full Survivor
This option is available to the member only if they have at least 15 years of service credit, they are a Tier A member and at least age 60 at retirement, of they are a Tier B member and at least age 65 with 5 years of service credit at retirement. This option pays reduced benefits for the member’s lifetime.
After death, the member’s beneficiary receives the same monthly payment for the rest of their life. The benefit reduction is based on the member’s age and their beneficiary’s age at retirement.
DO YOU NEED TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT?
ERF benefit counselors are available to help walk you through your beneficiary or designee benefit.