Transferring Your Membership to NYSLRS

transferring membership

A lot can change in our lives, and sometimes people switch jobs or professions during their career. Perhaps you were a teacher, and you recently began working for New York State. Or maybe you had a job with New York City, and you took a position with a municipality outside of the city. If you are an active member of more than one public retirement system in New York State, you may have the option of transferring that membership to NYSLRS and receiving credit for that service.

Considering Service Credit

Service credit is a factor in calculating a NYSLRS pension benefit, so increasing your service credit will generally increase your pension benefit.

In some cases, transferring membership may not be beneficial. For example, if you are in a retirement plan that allows for retirement after 20 or 25 years of service (regardless of age), your service usually must be in specific job titles to be creditable toward your pension benefit. If you are in one of these plans, find your retirement plan publication to learn what service is creditable.

If you have questions, contact a customer service representative before you apply to transfer a membership. You can message them using our secure contact form.

Transferring Membership

Members who are transferring membership to NYSLRS must:

  • Be on the payroll in a job that is covered by NYSLRS;
  • No longer work in the job that was covered by the other retirement system; and
  • Still be an active member of the other system (off payroll for that job, but your membership in the other system has not been terminated or withdrawn).

To transfer a membership to NYSLRS, you first must submit a transfer request to your other retirement system. When we receive your membership information from the other retirement system, we will compare your date of membership in NYSLRS with your date of membership in the other system. When the transfer is complete, your date of membership will be the earlier of the two dates. If applicable, your tier will change.

If You Need to Transfer to Another System

You can submit an online request to NYSLRS to transfer your membership from NYSLRS to another New York State public retirement system:

  • Sign in to Retirement Online.
  • In the ‘My Account Summary’ section of your Account Homepage, under ‘I want to…,’ click the “Transfer My Membership” button.

Whether you are transferring in or out of NYSLRS, the transfer is effective when we receive your application, and it may be permanent.

You can find more information about transferring membership on our website.

9 thoughts on “Transferring Your Membership to NYSLRS

  1. Renata Bodner

    Hi, I transferred my membership from NYCERS to NYSLRS about 6.5 years ago. My service was credited and money after penalty was transferred, but I was not kept in the same tier. In the city I was in Tier 4 and in the state I was put into Tier 5. How come I was downgraded????? I didn’t join that state pension, i transferred into it and my Tier 4 from the city should be reinstated. Please help!

    Reply
    1. NYSLRS Post author

      You can find information about NYSLRS tiers on our What Tier Are You In? page.

      For account-specific information about how this may apply in your situation, please message our customer service representatives using our secure contact form. Filling out the secure form allows them to safely contact you about your personal account information.

      Reply
  2. Renata Bodner

    I transferred from NYCERS to NYSLRS about 7 years ago. My service credit and money transferred but not my tier. I was in Tier 4 in NYCERS and here I was put in Tier 5. I keep getting a run around and rejected when I try to reinstate my Tier. Why was I downgraded? I feel that I was screwed over. All of my specifications should’ve transferred as is. Please help. Thanks in advance.

    Reply
    1. NYSLRS Post author

      You can find information about NYSLRS tiers on our What Tier Are You In? page.

      For account-specific information about how this may apply in your situation, please message our customer service representatives using our secure contact form. Filling out the secure form allows them to safely contact you about your personal account information.

      Reply
  3. Red Tape

    There’s no way it should take 10 months to process a “transfer in” request from another retirement system. Especially, since it’s the member’s money/property and can really affect an employee’s financial situation, if let’s say they need to take a pension loan during that timeframe. My best guess is that current and pending retirees get pushed to the front of the line, for service and processing, and who cares about current employees…

    Reply
  4. Margaret Kaminsky

    I had to transfer from NYSTRS to NYSLRS over four years ago. NYSLERS reinstate Tier 4 pretty quickly and has my service credit approximately correct, but the only salaries that show in my salary history are those since making the change. Therefore, I cannot use the online pension estimator, a real problem since I would like to be able to see the effect of different potential retirement dates. Yes, I can and have filled out the form to get an estimate, with wildly varying and obviously incorrect estimates, plus the form doesn’t allow you to try out different dates. If you are not forced to make the change, don’t.

    Reply
    1. NYSLRS Post author

      We apologize for the trouble you are having with Retirement Online.

      For account-specific questions about estimating your pension, please message our customer service representatives using our secure contact form. Filling out the secure form allows them to safely contact you about your personal account information.

      Reply
    1. NYSLRS

      If you have questions about transferring to NYSLRS from another retirement system, you can contact that retirement system, or you can email our customer service representatives using our secure email form. Filling out the secure form allows them to safely contact you about your personal account information.

      Reply

Leave a Reply