Under the Combined Service Annuity (CSA) law, various Minnesota public retirement plans work together so you receive credit for all of your service. If you are covered by another Minnesota public retirement plan, this service may coordinate with your service as a state employee.


CSA eligibility requirements

  • Hired before July 1, 2010:  you must have three years of service in two or more Minnesota public retirement plans (Judges and Legislators Plans require more), with a minimum of six months of service in each plan. You must start receiving retirement benefits from all of the plans within one year of each other.

  • Hired July 1, 2010 or after:  you must have five years of service in two or more Minnesota public retirement plans with a minimum of six months of service with each plan. You must start receiving retirement benefits from all of the plans within one year of each other. Exceptions: Correctional Plan has a graded vesting schedule. The Judges and Legislators Plan require more service to be eligible for a CSA).

MN retirement plans covered under CSA law

  • Minnesota State Retirement System (MSRS)
  • Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA)
  • Teachers Retirement Association (TRA)
  • St. Paul Teachers Retirement Fund Association (SPTRFA)
  • Duluth Teachers Retirement Fund Association (DTRFA)
     

If you switch Minnesota public employers, your pension contributions and service credit are not rolled into the new plan. The service credit earned will remain with the fund where the service was earned. When you retire, you will receive payment from each public retirement association.

Be sure to notify MSRS if you have service with another pension plan so we can contact the other fund to provide accurate benefit information.

How CSA works

Let's say you have seven years of Minnesota public employment. 

  • You worked two years for a Minnesota county during which time you were covered by PERA.
  • Five years of service was with the State of Minnesota, during which time you were covered under the MSRS General Employees Retirement Plan. 

To calculate the retirement benefit, both MSRS and PERA use the same five-high salary. We review salary from your entire seven-year public employment to determine the 60 month period with the highest average salary. 

In retirement, you will receive two monthly benefit payments: one from PERA representing two years of service and one from MSRS representing the five years of state service.