[CAUT] Looming Retirement

[Jeff Tanner]

Hi Hubert,
Thanks for your post.  You bring up an excellent point.

The one thing that might be different, is that the college professors 
more often than not have a different retirement plan than most of us do 
-- in the state schools that is, anyway.  For the majority of piano 
techs in public universities, we are "classified" state employees.  A 
college professor is typically "unclassified".  What this means in 
reference to retirement is that of the systems I've seen, classified 
employees are REQUIRED to participate in the state "pension" system, 
usually a defined benefit retirement plan, and are not allowed to 
participate in state optional retirement plans that the unclassified 
employees are able to use.

The professors are able to participate in a defined contribution plan.  
Under that type of investment plan, all monies deposited into your 
account, including employer contributions, are yours immediately to 
manage as you wish.  With the defined benefit plan, you have little to 
no management control, and if you leave the system, you may either 
leave your funds there to accumulate until retirement, or you may 
withdraw ONLY your contributions -- the employer's "matching" funds 
stay with the employer.

There ARE exceptions, of course.  No two states do things exactly the 
same.  But from what I'm finding, this is most usually the case with 
employees in public universities.

An aside to this:  my administrators have actually applied to have my 
position reclassified to an "unclassified" position.  We'll see what 
the state department of human resources decides.

Jeff


On Friday, March 11, 2005, at 03:34 PM, hubert liverman wrote:

> Avery and all,
>
> Excuse me for this,as I know not to post to this list.
> My father was employed as a College professor for many years. There 
> was a
> massive clean out of all Department Heads, etc. He Resigned,and took 
> his
> retirement account out to start a Music Store/ Teaching Studio. Several
> years later he was asked back to teach again. He was able to buyback 
> his
> entire retirement fund for a one time payment. Check out your 
> University and
> see if they have a payout plan.
>
> Thanks for bearing with me,
>
> Hubert Liverman
>
Jeff Tanner, RPT
School Of Music
University of South Carolina