Preparation eases retirement decisions

OPERS provides several tools and resources to help guide members

By Michael Pramik, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System

Sept. 4, 2025 – If you’re planning to retire in the near future, OPERS offers lots of information about how to get the process started and how to keep things flowing smoothly along the way.

The first consideration is to make sure you’re eligible to retire, even if you feel you’re ready. You’ll need to meet the eligibility requirements that OPERS has set in order for you to proceed. And, you’ll need to be financially secure before doing so.

Then, we recommend that members take part in several educational opportunities to help understand the retirement process. The descriptions and covered topics, as well as access to webinars and recorded presentations, can be found on the Educational Resources page of the OPERS website.

• Planning for Retirement: This seminar is for all members more than 12 months from retiring but within 5 years of retirement eligibility. During this presentation you will learn more about service credit and pension and health care program eligibility.
  
• Bridging the Gap: Part of the OPERS Financial Wellness series, this seminar helps you review your current spending habits and your expected retirement income. The goal is to “bridge the gap” between how much money you’ll have in retirement and how much you’ll need.
  
• Ready to Retire Under 65/65 and Older: These seminars, webinars and recorded presentations are for Pre-Medicare or Medicare age members within 12 months of retiring and includes two presentations conducted back-to-back – one for pension and one for health care. You’ll learn about the retirement application process, timeline details about your transition to retirement, the resources available to help you with your retirement decisions, and all about OPERS health care. Ready to Retire Under 65 is for Pre-Medicare members within 12 months of retiring, and Ready to Retire 65 and Older is for Medicare members within 12 months of retiring.

Next, OPERS recommends that those approaching retirement meet one-on-one with one of our counselors. You’ll learn about pension and health care eligibility, your payment plan options, whether you might be able to purchase or transfer service credit, and more. You can use your OPERS online account to schedule a 60-minute, face-to-face counseling session at the OPERS office in Columbus; a 60-minute virtual session via Zoom; or a 30-minute phone session.

Finally, OPERS has a comprehensive “Ready to Retire” website section that explains the ins and outs of retiring. Here, you’ll find separate links to the eligibility requirements – and more info – for those in the Traditional Pension Plan, Member-Directed Plan and Combined Plan.

The section also introduces more topics to consider, including tax implications, the partial lump-sum option payment, returning to work and how to keep us updated on your status after you retire. It also includes links to helpful leaflets for each of our three pension plans.