HR, Payroll and Benefits News

2012 WRS Annual Statement of Benefits
May 20, 2013

If you were covered by the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) in 2012, your Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) Annual Statement of Benefits is now available online in My UW System (UW-Madison users should access My UW, then click on the Work Record tab). Log in to the portal and go to the "Benefit Information" module and click on the "Statements" tab. Click on "ETF Annual Statement of Benefits (WRS) Issued 2013" to view and print your statement.

The WRS Annual Statement of Benefits provides you with information about your Wisconsin Retirement System account as of January 1, 2013. Information on the statement includes 2012 WRS earnings and creditable service, total years of WRS creditable service, and separation and death benefit calculations. You should review this statement closely for accuracy.

You may also review the Explanation of Annual Statement of Benefits (ET-7333) to help understand the information presented on your individual statement of benefits.

Statement Section 2 - After Act 10 Service

The name of your retirement category is in both Sections 1 and 2 of the Statement. If you are in a General, Teacher or Protective retirement category, all of your creditable service will be listed in the "Before 2000" and/or "After 1999" columns in Section 2 of the Statement. Only employees in an Elected or Executive retirement category will have creditable service in the "After Act 10" column. 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 changed the way retirement benefits are calculated for Elected/Executive category employees so service earned after Act 10 must be tracked separately for this group of employees.

Statement Section 3 - 2012 Employee Required Contributions

You may see an amount listed under Section 3 in the Employer Paid Employee Contributions field. The amount loaded to the field Employee Paid Contributions is the amount deducted from paychecks dated in 2012. If the amount deducted from payroll checks dated in 2012 did not equal 5.9% of your annual WRS earnings, the slight difference is shown in the Employer Paid Employee Contributions field.

If your WRS contribution amount was less than 5.9%, it may have been due to:

• Rounding differences: As a result of rounding on each WRS payroll deduction, the amount deducted from your paycheck may have been slightly less than 5.9% of your total 2012 WRS earnings.
• Refund of 2011 WRS contributions: Prior to January 1, 2012, the WRS contribution amount was 5.8%. All classified employees inadvertently had the new 5.9% amount (instead of 5.8%) deducted on their December 29, 2011 payroll check. This 0.1% difference was refunded on the June 14, 2012 paycheck.

Information to Help You Understand Your WRS Statement

Please note that if you have recently been upgraded to Firefox 19 (with a new built-in PDF viewer) you may find your statement unreadable in My UW/My UW System. For workaround instructions visit: https://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=28831. Please contact your institution's IT helpdesk if further assistance is needed.

• Explanation of Annual Statement of Benefits (ET-7333)
• Video Explanation of the Statement
• Webinars presented by the Department of Employee Trust Funds:
  • May 20, 2013 - 6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
  • May 22, 2013 - 11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Please contact your institution HR office with any questions on the ETF Annual Statement of Benefits.

Source: UW System Administration
Categories: WI Retirement System (WRS)