One New County Earns All-ECS Designation

We’ve added an additional county to the all-ECS counties map:

All-ECS Counties

  • Allen County
  • Butler County
  • Clark County
  • Clermont County
  • Columbiana County
  • Cuyahoga County
  • Defiance County
  • Delaware County
  • Franklin County
  • Fulton County
  • Geauga County
  • Hamilton County
  • Henry County
  • Lake County
  • Lawrence County
  • Logan County
  • Lorain County
  • Madison County
  • Mahoning County
  • Montgomery County
  • Ottawa County
  • Paulding County
  • Perry County
  • Stark County
  • Summit County
  • Trumbull County
  • Union County
  • Warren County
  • Wayne County
  • Williams County
All ECS Map

Employer training scheduled for 2017

Live webinars covering the following topics have been scheduled for 2017:

The majority of these trainings are also available as a recorded presentation that can be viewed at any time. Please visit the Educational Opportunities for employers to view the webinar schedule, read a description of each training and access the recorded presentations.

New Training developed in conjunction with the Auditor of State

OPERS offers three, one-hour training sessions that can be used toward completing the education requirement of the Fiscal Integrity Act. If you attend one of the following webinars, you can self-report your attendance using the Auditor of State’s Training Portal.

  • Contribution Reporting
  • Employer Programs
  • OPERS Membership

Non-Contributing Lists
Annual Non-Contributing Lists were due Jan. 31, 2017 for calendar year 2016.

As an OPERS employer, even if you do not have any non-contributing employees, you need to submit a Non-Contributing List report on ECS indicating you have no one to report. If you haven’t submitted a Non-Contributing List by the end of the first quarter, you will receive a letter indicating you are out of compliance. Failure to notify OPERS of contract work or employment of a public pension benefit recipient may result in financial penalty to the public employer. Submitting the Non-Contributing List immediately will lessen your risk of penalty.

To learn more about the requirements for properly submitting your annual Non-Contributing List, you can view a recorded online presentation, call your Employer Outreach representative at (888) 400-0965 or register for a live, interactive webinar.

Conversion Plans

If you have a conversion plan for vacation, sick or personal time, you must have submitted your plan for approval by March 31, 2017. Conversion plans must be approved before any conversion payments are made if the intent is to include the payments as earnable salary. Plans cannot be retroactively approved. Plans can be submitted for review by mail, by fax at (614) 857-1138, or by email at employeroutreach@opers.org.

House Bill 520 – Summary of Impact to OPERS Members

Amended Sub. House Bill 520 was signed by the Governor Jan. 4, 2017, and became effective April 6, 2017. While the bill includes provisions that will affect all five Ohio retirement systems, certain components of this bill will have a direct impact on OPERS members:

  • Children, age 18 to 22, of a member who dies before retirement no longer must be attending an institution of learning or training in order to receive survivor benefits.
  • Members refunding their accounts will now be able to receive their refund after a two-month waiting period instead of the current three-month waiting period.
  • In some cases, beneficiaries are eligible for a combined survivor benefit from OPERS, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio and/or the School Employees Retirement System of Ohio. The most recent beneficiary designation among the three systems will be honored if an OPERS member also is a member of one or both of the other two systems and the survivor is eligible for a combined benefit.
  • For a period of 90 days following the bill's enactment, certain members with service in both OPERS and the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund will be able to combine service and retire from OPERS, even if the member has more service credit at OP&F.
  • Five new classifications will be established in OPERS'’' Law Enforcement and Public Safety divisions:
    • Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation Investigator
    • Casino Control Commission Gaming Agent
    • Department of Taxation Investigator
    • Special Police Officer for a Port Authority, and
    • Special Police Officer for a Municipal Airport.

The bill also includes a number of other corrections that are technical in nature and that modify provisions of the most-recent pension design changes.

Please see the recent Employer Notice for more information on actions employers need to take in response to this legislation. If you have questions or concerns after you review the Employer Notice, contact your Employer Outreach representative at (888) 400-0965, or by email at employeroutreach@opers.org.

OPERS members to receive 2016 Personal Statement of Estimated Benefits

The 2016 Personal Statements of Estimated Benefits feature a new layout designed to be more concise and easier to understand. Also, benefit projections have been expanded to include the earliest eligibility (reduced), earliest eligibility (unreduced) and estimates for working past the earliest eligibility dates. These estimates show members the advantages of working longer and help them better plan for retirement.

This year, OPERS is also introducing an online companion tool, which provides definitions and links to additional information on each section of the annual statement.

OPERS began mailing statements in mid-March and will continue mailing statements through April. Don’t be concerned if a family member or co-worker receives his statement before you receive yours. Statements are batched by ZIP codes and mailed to home addresses on a staggered schedule. However, members don’t have to wait to receive a printed copy; they can view their 2016 annual statement online now by logging into their online account and selecting the Documents tab.

Members may notice that their total contributions in 2016 may not be the same as the amount found on their W-2 form. There are two potential reasons for this difference. First, statements reflect the salary amount earned in 2016, while the W-2 reflects the amount paid in a given year. Second, their W-2 may include pay that is not subject to OPERS contributions.

New year, new contacts?
Make sure your employer contact information is up-to-date

Be certain OPERS has the correct recipients for your employer communications and correspondence. If you need to update your contact information, please call OPERS Employer Services and request an update form. Additionally, your primary Employer Contribution System user should review who has access to ECS and add or disable users as needed.

Employer Census Data Validations continue in 2017

Employer Services is beginning the second year of Employer Census Data Validations. Those employers selected to participate will receive information about the data validation in the upcoming months. Employers selected to participate in the OPERS Employer Census Data Validation project, will not be selected by OPERS’ external auditors for the 2017 audit of OPERS’ GASB 68 census data.

Employer Highlight
How Perry Township worked with OPERS to use their available employer credits

Employer credits are created for a variety of reasons, including:

Peri Township Logo
  • Refunds of unauthorized contributions
  • Overpayments of employer liabilities
  • Corrections of previously submitted contribution reports
  • Corrections of employer charges related to service purchases

OPERS employers can use available employer credits toward unpaid employer liabilities. Credits can be applied easily when creating your next payment remittance advice or paperless payment in ECS. The total amount of the credits available will be displayed and can be applied automatically by clicking “Pay Net Liability,” or if you would like to apply a credit to specific charges, click “Select Liabilities for this Payment” and follow the instructions on the screens. Federal law prohibits OPERS from issuing a check for credit amounts, so it is important to apply these credits to future employer liabilities as soon as possible. Employer credits are not designed to accumulate for the employer over a long period of time.

If you have any questions about the process, your dedicated Employer Account Representative will be glad to work with you to complete the necessary steps. At the end of last year, Karen Moser, assistant fiscal officer, Perry Township Board of Trustees, did just that. Below is her description of working with Employer Account Representative Steve McDaniel to apply their employer credits toward their liabilities.

“In early December 2016, we were first contacted by Steve from OPERS regarding our outstanding credit, explaining OPERS’ request to absorb the credit toward our next remittance. With all the end-of-the-year routine reporting approaching, our first reaction was ’How much work and time is this going to cause our office?’ Steve thoroughly explained the procedure we were to use with our filing method through ECS. He eased our anticipation by having us call when we were ready to apply the credit and patiently walked us through the process. The process worked just as he explained and our bank reconciliation balanced without issue. We appreciate the time and patience shown to us to complete this process. Thank you.”

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It is your responsibility to be certain that OPERS has your current physical and e-mail address on file. If OPERS is not made aware of address changes, we cannot guarantee that you will receive important information pertaining to your OPERS account. This publication is written in plain language for use by public employers who are subject to coverage under the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. It is not intended as a substitute for the federal or state law, namely the Ohio Revised Code, the Ohio Administrative Code, or the Internal Revenue Code, nor will its interpretation prevail should a conflict arise between it and the Ohio Revised Code, Ohio Administrative Code, or Internal Revenue Code. Rules governing the retirement system are subject to change periodically either by statute of the Ohio General Assembly, regulation of the Ohio Public Employees Retirement Board, or regulation of the Internal Revenue Code. If you have questions about this material, please contact our office or seek legal advice from your attorney. OPERS is not required to provide health care coverage to retirees or their dependents and will only do so at the discretion of the Board of Trustees.