Your Reciprocal Service

IMRF is one of 13 public pension systems covered under the Illinois Retirement Systems Reciprocal Act. This Act allows you to combine service credit from reciprocal systems at retirement.

Benefits of retiring under the Reciprocal Act

• Service credit earned with different Illinois Reciprocal Retirement systems can be combined to receive a larger pension.
• Each system uses your highest earnings when it calculates your pension.
• In most cases, you will receive a higher combined benefit by retiring under the Reciprocal Act.
• To find out if retiring reciprocally is the better choice for you, you should contact the system you worked for most recently for a reciprocal estimate.

You should also know:

• Retiring under the reciprocal act is optional.
• You must have at least one year (12 months) of service credit with each retirement system in order to combine service credit under the Reciprocal Act. (One exception exists for school district teacher aides who transfer to a position covered by the Teachers’ Retirement System.)
• You should apply for retirement with all reciprocal systems at the same time.
• You must complete a separate pension application for each system. Make sure to tell each system that you are applying for a reciprocal pension.