Retirement

Lenoir Community College full-time employees automatically become members of the North Carolina Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System (TSERS). Employees contribute 6% of their pre-tax salaries into the system.

Vesting
Members of the retirement system become vested after a minimum of five years of membership service if hired prior to August 1, 2011, or ten years if hired on or after August 1, 2011. Vesting means that you are eligible to apply for lifetime monthly retirement benefits once you meet the minimum age and service requirements set forth by the retirement system (provided you do not withdraw your contributions).

Service Retirement (Unreduced Benefits)
You may retire with an unreduced service retirement benefit after:

• you reach age 65 and complete five years of membership service (10 years if you became a member on or after August 1, 2011)
• you reach age 60 and complete 25 years of creditable service
• you complete 30 years of creditable service at any age

Early Retirement (Reduced Benefits)
You may retire early with reduced retirement benefits after:

• you reach age 50 and complete 20 years of creditable service
• you reach age 60 and complete five years of membership service (10 years if you became a member on or after August 1, 2011)

Retiree Health Coverage
Under current law, if you were first hired prior to October 1, 2006, and retire with five or more years of State System membership service, the State will pay for your individual coverage under the non-contributory (currently 70/30) plan at retirement.

Based on the conditions described above, if you were first hired on or after October 1, 2006, in order to receive individual coverage at no cost, you must retire with 20 or more years of retirement service credit; if you have 10 but less than 20 years of retirement service credit, you will have to pay 50 percent of the cost for your coverage; and with five years but less than 10 years, you will have to pay the full cost for your coverage. In all cases, the full cost of dependent coverage, if elected, must be paid by you.

Please see the Retirement Handbook for additional retiree health coverage eligibility factors.