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2024-2025 Retirement Planning Memo

Date:                November 6, 2024
Subject:           Retirement Planning
To:                   Academic Senate Faculty


Dear Colleagues:

The purpose of this annual letter is to remind Academic Senate Faculty how your professional lives at UCLA can continue after you have “retired” to emerita/us status. The unique UCLA Pathways to Retirement program allows senior faculty to make firm plans for continued campus engagement after retirement, and to plan-out up to two transitional years prior to retirement, at full pay. 

Rewarding retirement years begin with financial security and the University of California famously has among the very best retirement plans in academia. The classic UC Retirement Plan (UCRP) (for eligible employees who were initially hired before July 1, 2016) is quite generous and provides the foundation essential for whatever plans you may have for the future:

  • UC employees with 40 years of service receive pensions equal to their academic year basic salary.  Even those with fewer years of service often find that their net income can increase after retirement, due to reduced deductions and new income sources like Social Security, distributions from retirement savings and recall salary. 
  • The UC pension is unaffected by furloughs or salary reductions that may be mandated by UC finances, and unlike employee salaries, the UC pension is NOT subject to contribution deductions for retirement, Social Security or Medicare; thus, take-home pay is up to fifteen percent greater. 
  • The UC pension has a guaranteed annual cost of living allowance that is not contingent on the financial health of the University.

Faculty hired on or after July 1, 2016 are subject to the new “Retirement Choice” plan that differs substantially from the classic UCRP.  A summary of the Tier 2016 New Retirement Choice Plan may be found on the Academic Affairs & Personnel Office Retirement Resources webpage.

At UCLA there is also substantial support for continued engagement with academic life:

  • Emeriti (Senate) maintain full membership in the UCLA Academic Senate, along with all the rights that Senate membership bestows.
  • UCLA emeriti can choose the extent to which they continue to be engaged and active in their professional lives, including mentoring, teaching, serving as PI on research grants, chairing dissertation committees, and serving on Academic Senate committees. 
  • Emeriti faculty have the opportunity for Paid Recall employment for teaching, research and administration. Teaching is usually paid on a modest course by course basis, and can be pre-arranged for up to three years in their Pathway Agreements (see below).  Research Paid Recall is usually supported via continuing extramural funding, and administrative Paid Recall requires need and support from one’s department or other campus unit. Total Recall compensation cannot exceed 43 percent of your final annual salary. NOTE: there is a mandatory hiatus between retirement and initiating Paid Recall.  Currently just one month, this hiatus may increase in the future, subject to UCOP mandate.
  • Senate faculty who continue to be active in research and scholarship are eligible to apply to use the title “Research Professor” (or “Distinguished Research Professor” for Above Scale Faculty).  Consult Appendix 38 of the CALL for more information. 
  • Emeriti faculty on Paid Recall are allotted workspace, and many schools and departments provide some form of shared space for all their emeriti.

As you begin to consider retirement, please be aware of the following planning services and programs:

  1. Path Forward Workshops: Exclusively for UCLA faculty, these winter quarter sessions examine opportunities for continued involvement after retirement in your department, the Senate and the campus, and also delve into the nuts and bolts of the UC retirement process, including special considerations for faculty. Please watch for the announcement about our 2025 program. 
  2. Faculty Retirement Liaison: Professor Emeritus David Lopez, UCLA’s Faculty Retirement Liaison, coordinates the Path Forward Workshops, and consults individually in total confidence (usually via FaceTime or Zoom) with faculty who are planning for retirement, helping them make pre- and post- retirement arrangements with their departments and advising them about the retirement process. Contact him by email at dlopez@soc.ucla.edu. 
  3. Pathways to Retirement Plan: These individual plans specify a separation/retirement  date, with considerations both prior to retirement (e.g. reduced teaching loads, modest re-arrangement of sabbatical plans, suspension of an upcoming five-year review) and following retirement (office and/or laboratory space, recall teaching, research funds, etc.). Individualized plans are developed in consultation with your department chair, subject to approval by your dean and my office. Over 500 Senate faculty members have utilized this program in the past few years. More information can be found in the Guide to the Faculty Retirement Process. 
  4. UCLA Benefits Office: Retirement counselors are available to consult with you about the University of California Retirement Plan process and about your specific situation. Schedule a consultation by calling the UCLA Benefits Office at (310) 794-0830.
  5. Fidelity Retirement Services: As the record-keeping company for the UC Retirement Savings Program’s Defined Contribution, Tax-Deferred 403(b), and 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plans, UC/Fidelity can help you plan for your financial needs in retirement. Visit their website to use its interactive planning tools.  You can also make an appointment to meet with UCLA’s special Fidelity Representative Andrew Fung at Andrew.fung@fmr.com.
  6. UCLA Emeriti/Retirees Relations Center (ERRC):  The ERRC, led by Senior Director Ayesha Dixon, serves as the connecting link between UCLA and its retirees. In partnership with the UCLA Emeriti Association and the UCLA Retirees’ Association the ERRC offers programs on wellness, economic sustainability, relationship building, social responsibility, civic engagement, and assists with emeriti privileges, as well as facilitates opportunities for retired faculty and staff to continue their engagement with the campus. For more information please contact the ERRC at (310) 825-7456 or emeriti@errc.ucla.edu.
  7. Reduced Rate Parking:  Emeriti are eligible to purchase an “EMER” parking permit, with privileges similar to an X permit, at a substantially reduced rate. 

AN IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE:  While we at UCLA will continue to do everything possible to support emeriti and those planning for their retirement years, all individual faculty (and staff) will have to navigate the actual UCRP web-based application for retirement. Therefore it is especially important to understand this application process, and how to maximize the combined benefits of the UC Retirement Plan and the campus-based support for emeriti. 

For all matters regarding retirement, including how to craft a formal Pathways to Retirement Agreement with your department chair, coordinating your particular set of professional and financial concerns, or navigating the UC retirement process, I encourage you to contact Emeritus Professor David Lopez, the UCLA Faculty Retirement Liaison at dlopez@soc.ucla.edu.


Sincerely,

Kathleen L. Komar
Interim Vice Provost