Employer News | Quarterly Newsletter | Summer 2023

• Employer On-Behalf Funding for Fiscal Year 2024
• NEW! Former Member Look-Up Portal
• TRS 2023/2024 School Year Reporting—Remember to STAT Back Employees!
• Annual Census Audits

Employer On-Behalf Funding for Fiscal Year 2024

On-behalf funding for Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) and Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) employers for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) is provided by House Bill (HB) 39 (Section 74). HB 39 passed during the 2023 legislative session and was recently signed into law. The bill provides a set amount of funding to reduce the PERS Employer Effective Rate to 22 percent and the TRS Employer Effective Rate to 12.56 percent for FY24.

The on-behalf funding is applied with the processing of each employer's payroll. Employer on-behalf funding statements will be emailed to payroll and finance contacts. For PERS on-behalf funding questions or statement copies, please email Erica Carlson at erica.carlson@alaska.gov or call
(907) 465-2279. For TRS on-behalf funding questions or statement copies please email Walter Agne at walter.agne@alaska.gov or call (907) 465-5711.

For PERS and TRS employer on-behalf funding provided in HB 39, the Division of Retirement and Benefits will apply payments for complete payrolls through the pay period end date of June 30, 2024. For fiscal year 2024 (July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024) complete payrolls must be received in our office by July 15, 2024, to be processed with HB 39 employer on-behalf funding.

A complete payroll is defined as a payroll that has all elements needed to process the payroll. This includes the funds necessary to process the payroll, including a correct memo if the payment is a wire or push ACH. Additionally, the payroll summary and the employer payroll detail are part of a complete payroll.

For other questions, please contact Christina Maiquis at (907) 465-1845 or email christina.maiquis@alaska.gov.

NEW! Former Member Look-Up Portal

The Division of Retirement and Benefits (Division) has implemented pre-employment steps when onboarding new hires to ensure they are placed into the proper retirement system [defined benefit (DB) or defined contribution (DCR)].

We have developed custom tools to assist you in determining which retirement plan a new hire should be enrolled in utilizing a former member look-up portal. This portal allows employers to verify retirement plan eligibility at onboarding.

Former members who are eligible to choose which retirement plan they want to participate in will need to submit the Retirement Plan Election form to the Division within 30 days of the date of hire. Failure to do so may result in the employer submitting employee adjustment records if the member is enrolled in the incorrect retirement system.

The Division sent all PERS and TRS Employer contacts the following letter by email on July 27, 2023, with detailed instructions on how to log in to the Former Member Look-Up portal and identify which employees will need to be provided the Former Member Election form at the time of hire. 

• Important Information Concerning Member Election of Participation Related Forms PDF

Please reach out to your Retirement and Benefits payroll contact if you need assistance utilizing the former member look-up portal, or have additional personnel who need to be granted access.

TRS 2023/2024 School Year Reporting—Remember to STAT Back Employees!

As the school year approaches, it is time to revisit the beginning-of-year reporting procedures for the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS).

All Teachers who were put on TSE at the end of the school year need a STAT event entered when they return to work.

Please report the following on your first payroll (pay period end (PPE) date on or after July 1, 2023) for the school year (SY) 2023/2024:

• Return to work date (STAT record) for each teacher for the new school year;
• Part-time teachers’ service percentage level (FTE of teacher’s SY 2023/2024 contract) must be reported on their STAT record that returns them to work; and
• Personnel Change records: address changes, marital status changes, and birth date corrections, as needed.

Please check the Tier/Plan for a new employee prior to reporting them as a new hire. To check on a new employee, visit our Employer Reporting webpage to find the Employer Access portal.

Your login is the same as eReporting.

If teachers were not put on TSE at the end of the school year, a TSE event will need to be entered as of the day after the last day worked for the school year or June 30, 2023. Then a STAT will need to be entered when the day they begin work again.

If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your payroll contact or e-mail us at doa.drb.activepayroll@alaska.gov.

Annual Census Audits

The Division’s auditors, KPMG, are gearing up to start with this year’s employer GASB 68 and 75 census audits. The frequency of the census audits is based on the employer size and can occur every year, every five years, or every ten years. The Division’s external auditor chooses employers for a census audit around July of each year. Employers have received a notification that they’ve been selected and should expect to provide PERS- and TRS-related data to the external auditors within a specific timeframe. For questions regarding the census data audit and additional details about the requirements, please see the sample letter from the Division as well as the AICPA whitepaper.

To aid you in preparation for this process, it’s important for employers to keep detailed records of their transmissions to the Division and to ensure those transmissions reconcile with the employer payroll records. If you have questions related to the transmission and records, please contact your payroll contact.