The Division of Retirement and Benefits is happy to report its payroll reporting application, eReporting, is back online.
On November 4, the Division of Retirement and Benefits (Division) was notified by the Office of Information Technology (OIT) that unexpected activity was noted on the Division’s servers and all access to the State network and the servers had been severed until the issue could be investigated. The investigation process took approximately three weeks before the Division once again had connectivity. The Division’s data was not accessed, viewed, or exported, so no breach of information occurred. Due to the time it would take to restore and rebuild the servers and the requirement for the Division to move its programs and applications to the cloud, it was determined for the Division to complete the migration to the cloud that had started earlier in the year.
Except for the State of Alaska and the Municipality of Anchorage, all participating employers use eReporting to report their payrolls to the Division for Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS), Teachers' Retirement System (TRS), and/ or Supplemental Annuity Plan (SBS) processing. It was discovered that eReporting would need additional updates before it could be migrated to the cloud. These updates are now completed and the eReporting application has been successfully migrated.
The Division is now implementing a phased approach to bring employers back online and process the backlog of payrolls and plan contributions (both employee and employer). Division staff is working diligently with employers to manage this as quickly as possible. It will take a considerable amount of time for all the back payrolls to be processed, so employees should not expect to see their contributions updated right away. Employee’s retirement plan contributions will be updated as the payrolls are processed.
The Division, in consultation with the Department of Law, has determined that it would be appropriate to provide compensation for potential lost earnings during the period contributions were not posted in employees' Defined Contribution Retirement (DCR) accounts. The compensation method used will calculate earnings on each employee’s plan contributions/deferrals from the date the first payroll should have posted after the outage up to the day the posted into the employee’s account and ready for investment. Please check back with this page for the latest updates and the Division's Facebook page. PERS Defined Benefit (DB) employees and employees who contribute to the Voluntary Savings Plan will also receive the mandatory 2.25% accrued interest for contributions that should have been posted to their accounts through December 31, 2024. Additional DCR compensation and DB mandatory interest will not be allocated until all payrolls are up to date.
We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we continue to work to resolve this issue.
Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports and
Financial Statements
The 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports and Audited Financial Statements for the PERS and TRS are available online. To request hard copies, please email doa.drb.accountants@alaska.gov.
PERS Publications
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TRS Publications
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It is essential for all employers to keep their agency contact information up to date. This ensures the Division can notify you of important updates and changes. Additionally, only listed contacts have permission to communicate with the Division—if a staff member is not on the list, we cannot discuss information with them.
Please verify that the following contacts are current, including the correct name, email address, phone number, and address. The same individual may be designated for multiple contact roles.
- Payroll Contact – REQUIRED
- Administration Contact – May designate more than one
- Finance Director Contact – REQUIRED
- Additional Contact(s) – Optional; multiple contacts allowed
- Personnel Contact – REQUIRED, if applicable
- Superintendent Contact – If applicable
- Data Processing Contact – If applicable
- Mayor Contact – If applicable
Please work with your Active Payroll contact to verify all employer contacts are correct.
Employers must notify their Division payroll contact before performing a full back-out of an employee’s contribution. This is especially important for PERS DCR, TRS DCR, and SBS plans, as market losses and fees may reduce the account balance below the back-out amount. Employers are responsible for covering any market losses or fees imposed by Empower due to the reversal of ineligible contributions.
To help prevent full back-outs, ensure employees are enrolled in the correct plan—either Defined Benefit (DB) or Defined Contribution (DC)—at the time of hire.
DEFINED CONTRIBUTION RETIREMENT PLAN
Defined Contribution Retirement (DCR) Plan beneficiary designation forms must be submitted directly to Empower Retirement (Empower), not to the Division of Retirement and Benefits (Division). The employee must wait until their first payroll has processed with the Division or until they have received their welcome flyer/postcard from Empower before setting up their beneficiary designations online or submitting a hard copy form. Empower will reject all forms until the employee has an account established with them.
Submitting beneficiary forms online is Empowers preferred method. The employee should create an
account with Empower at participant.empower-retirement.com. This is the most efficient process and helps reduce the chance of errors. If assistance is needed, Empower can be reached at (800) 232-0859.
If submitting the beneficiary designation online is not an option, please mail or fax the completed form to Empower. Hard copy beneficiary designation forms should not be submitted to Empower until 15 days after the employee’s first payroll has been submitted to the Division.
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Mail
Empower Retirement
P.O. Box 173764
Denver, CO 80217-3764
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Fax
Empower Retirement
(303) 801-5800
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Should the employee require a paper form, please contact Empower or your designated Division Active Payroll Contact for the most up-to-date form. A separate beneficiary designation form must be submitted for each plan (PERS DCR, TRS DCR, SBS-AP, and DCP) in which the employee is a member. Each plan has its own form with the plan number located in the upper right-hand corner of the form:
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PERS DCR: 98214-04
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TRS DCR: 98214-05
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SBS-AP: 98214-03
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DCP: 98214-01
Please note that all Defined Benefit (DB) beneficiary forms should continue to be submitted to the Division.
If you have any questions, please contact our office toll-free at (800) 821-2251 or email us at doa.drb.activepayroll@alaska.gov.
Always contact your Regional Counselor or Active Payroll Contact if you have questions.
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