UC Retirement Counselors at the Retirement Customer Service Center are available to talk to by phone . Call 1-800-888-8267, ext 2 (for active employees planning for retirement). Contact a retirement counselor for retirement benefits counseling and document preparation, retirement estimates, service credit verifications, UCRP benefit calculations.
Reading Materials
UC Retirement Handbook
"What To Do If You're Preparing for Retirement" overview
UC Retiree Health and Welfare Benefits Plan Costs
What To Do If You're Enrolling in Medicare
Should You Take Social Security at 62? and other tips
Financial Planning Resources UCB Financial Wellness Workshops
Fidelity Workshops
Fidelity One-on-One Counseling
Fidelity Retirement Review for those "Retiring from UC"
Online Tools
Retirement Estimator
My Social Security
Fidelity financial planning tools
Retirement Center Benefits
Retiree bMail
Free learning opportunities
Retiree parking
Discounts around campus
. and more!
The Retirement Center coordinates a variety of pre-retirement and long-term care planning seminars to help you prepare for the important transition of retirement. These seminars are free of charge and open to active faculty, academic appointees and staff of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Click here to find out more.
Presented by representatives from the Retirement Administration Service Center (RASC), this webinar for UCRP members considering retirement from UC within the next five years, covers topics such as understanding the UCRP pension benefits, retirement savings and retiree health coverage.
You’ve had a long, successful career at UC and now you’re thinking of the next phase: retirement. The process is not difficult, but it’s important to plan ahead.
You can retire and receive UC benefits anytime after you become eligible—that is, when you have at least five years of UC Retirement Plan (UCRP) service credit and reach age 50 or 55, depending on your membership classification.
Retirement decisions are among the most important you’ll ever make. This comprehensive handbook will help you make the right choices for your future. Link to the UC Retirement Handbook.
One of the most important things you can do to prepare for retirement is to become familiar with the actual process for retiring from UC. Make sure to review this website that details the steps you'll take when it's time to make the leap!
UC Retiree Health and Welfare Benefits Plan Costs: Recent costs for medical, dental, vision, legal and AD&D benefits.
To be eligible for retiree health and welfare benefits, you must:
When you turn 65, whether you’re still working or already retired, you’ll become eligible to enroll in Medicare, the federal program to provide older people and those with disabilities or permanent kidney failure with secure access to medical care. The rules are different for employees and retirees; so to be sure you enroll properly, avoid Medicare premium penalties and understand how Medicare works with your UC-sponsored medical plan, follow these steps. Learn more
Social Security
Should you Take Social Security at 62?Fidelity reviews the question of what age to start collecting Social Security
Social Security tips for couples- Fidelity reviews three strategies that may help married couples dramatically boost their lifetime benefits
Maximize Your Social Security Benefits- AARP provides expert answers to your most common Social Security questions
Social Security Strategies for Singles - AARP provides tips to help maximize monthly benefits for single people
When to Start Receiving Retirement Benefits- The Social Security Administration reviews the most common question they receive, "What is the best age to start receiving retirement benefits?
UCRAYS, which is replaced At Your Service Online (AYSO) for retirement related services, is a secure website that offers greater access to UC retirement information and more ways to view and manage retirement information in a user-friendly format. Most importantly, it includes enhanced security features, ensuring UC is following best practices for keeping your retirement information secure.
What can active faculty and staff members do in UCRAYS right now?
In addition to increased security, UCRAYS offers faculty and staff the ability to:
• Send and receive secure messages, with attachments if needed, to the RASC
• View service credit and UCRP/CAP contribution balances
• View and update beneficiary designations
• Estimate retirement income
Features to be added later in 2020 will include:
• Personal Retirement Profile and retirement election process
• Service credit purchase estimates (although still available in AYSO until then)
For more information and instructions on how to register and log in to UCRAYS visit here.
Keep track of your earnings and verify them every year; Get an estimate of your future benefits if you are still working; Get a letter with proof of your benefits if you currently receive them and more. Learn more
Fidelity offers a variety of online tools for active staff and faculty and retirees to help manage your assets, plan for retirement, and more! Some tools include: Take Home Pay Calculator, Retirement Quick Check, Plan Limit Calculators, Budgeting & Debt Management, and Retirement Income Planner. Access Fidelity Calculators and online tools
Online Personal Retirement Review (myucretirement.com)
Get a personal statement designed to show you the monthly retirement income; includes a modeler that lets you explore different assumptions, such as the amount you save in the UC 403(b) or 457(b) Plan, or the age at which you retire. https://myucretirement.com/
Your UC Retirement Income Might Just Surprise You - review several examples of retirement income from UCRP
UC Berkeley Financial Planning Resources
Finanical Wellness Workshops : The Tang Center offers financial workshops, including "Working with a Financial Planner to Create Your Financial Plan and "Making the Most of Social Security." Learn more
Financial Fair: The annual "Financial Fair for Personal Finance" is an opportunity for UC Berkeley faculty, staff, and retirees to attend workshops, learn about campus resources, and visit with campus financial vendors. Learn more
Contact: Wendy Nishikawa at (510) 642-7883, wnishikawa@berkeley.edu
Fidelity Investments Financial Planning Classes and One-on-one Counseling
UC Financial Education Classes: UC offers a range of retirement planning and financial education classes to help you make the most of the UC Retirement Savings Program. View a list of classes. Learn more
Fidelity workshops on Social Security - This workshop will cover the basics and give you the tools to calculate your benefits, assessing your personal situation and claiming options, and considerations before you claim. Click here to register
One-on-One Financial Planning Consultations: At UC, you can have a one-on-one with a Fidelity Workplace Planning & Guidance Consultant to review your plan for retirement savings and your other finances. It’s a service of the UC Retirement Savings Program, and it’s available to you at no additional cost. To arrange an appointment online: http://getguidance.fidelity.com/universityofcalifornia or call: 1-866-682-7787. Learn more: https://www.myucretirement.com/.
Video learning series on "Finance as We Age" - Developed by Terrance Odean, Rudd Family Foundation Professor of Finance, Haas School of Business University of California, Berkeley; includes 9 free training modules, ranging from 5 -15 minutes in length. Includes topics on advance directives, wills, trusts, how much you need to retire, how much you can spend in retirement, deferred income annuities, social security, medicare and long term care.
