Vesting & Deferred Retirement

Overview

Vesting & Deferred Retirement

If you have five or more years of retirement service credit, you are considered to be “vested.” If you then terminate your County or district employment, you may elect to defer your service retirement until you are eligible to retire and leave your contributions on deposit with VCERA.

You may rescind your deferred retirement and withdraw your contributions at any time by providing written notice to VCERA. However, by withdrawing your funds, you sever membership in VCERA and forfeit rights to all future benefits.

Retirement Eligibility & Application

While you remain in deferred status, your years of “eligibility service” will continue to increase, thereby helping you meet the minimum service credit requirement to retire. However, your retirement benefit will be based only on service credit you earned and purchased. After you become eligible to retire, you must complete a Retirement Application Packet to begin receiving your lifetime benefit.

Returning to Active Membership

If you are rehired as a regular, full-time employee with a County or district employer, you will return to active membership in the same benefit tier and with the same membership entry date that applied during your previous service. This applies to rehired General member only. If you were a Safety member who is newly hired as a General member, please contact VCERA.

If you previously terminated and withdrew your contributions from VCERA, you will be able to redeposit those funds upon rehire, thereby restoring the service credit forfeited by your withdrawal. The restoration of your service will not occur until all contributions and accrued interest are redeposited.