The Teachers’ Fund for Retirement (TFFR) is a defined benefit pension plan administered by the Retirement and Investment Office that is designed to provide licensed public school educators with retirement, disability, and death benefits.
TFFR accounts earn interest at an annual rate of 6% compounded monthly. This interest rate is set by law and has been in place since 1983. It is not related to the investment return rate earned by the TFFR pension trust fund. When a member retires, their account no longer earns interest.
Your current account value and your last annual statement can be viewed by logging into your MyTFFR account using a link found on the Retirement and Investment Office’s (RIO) website. If you don’t have an account login, you may need to create one using your personal information. If you need assistance, contact RIO at 701-328-9885 or rio@nd.gov.
To update Teacher’s Fund for Retirement (TFFR) account information, login into your MyTFFR account using a link found on the Retirement and Investment Office’s (RIO) website. If you don’t have an account login, you may need to create one using your personal information. If you need assistance, contact RIO at 701-328-9885 or rio@nd.gov.
Once a member is contracted to perform teaching, supervisory, administrative, or extracurricular services, additional payments for performance of duties of a teacher are considered eligible retirement salary unless conditioned on or made in anticipation of retirement or termination.
More information about Eligible Retirement Salary (Reportable) and Ineligible Retirement Salary (Non-Reportable) is available in the Teachers’ Fund for Retirement Member Handbook.
Yes. Current law allows an active member to purchase various types of service credit to use toward retirement eligibility and benefits once certain eligibility requirements have been satisfied.
More information about purchasing service credit is available in the Teachers’ Fund for Retirement Member Handbook.
To receive a retirement benefit from the Teachers’ Fund for Retirement, a member must apply to the Retirement and Investment Office (RIO). The agency verifies eligibility and calculates the benefit based on the member’s years of service and final average salary. Once the application is approved, the member begins receiving monthly benefit payments.
To begin the application process, login into your MyTFFR account using a link found on RIO’s website. If you don’t have an account login, you may need to create one using your personal information. If you need assistance, contact RIO at 701-328-9885 or rio@nd.gov.
If you have already paid taxes on the member contributions that were paid to TFFR, you will recover the total amount of previously taxed member contributions by way of a monthly exclusion to income. The recovery period is set by the IRS and can be as long as 35 years. The balance of your benefit is taxable income under both federal and state law. See the Taxation of Retirement Benefits fact sheet. A 1099-R tax form is mailed in January.
After you retire, you may return to TFFR covered employment under certain employment limitations. Because of the impact returning to work could have on your TFFR retirement benefit, we strongly encourage you to contact the Retirement and Investment Office at 701-328-9885 or rio@nd.gov to discuss this option.
More information about Employment after Retirement is available in the Teachers’ Fund for Retirement Member Handbook.
If you are a vested member, you have two options: 1) Take a refund of your account value. A refund can either be paid to you or rolled over to an eligible retirement plan. 2) Leave your money in TFFR and defer drawing retirement benefits until you are eligible for retirement. Deferred benefit estimates may be included on your annual statement or can be obtained by contacting the Retirement and Investment Office (RIO) at 701-328-9885 or rio@nd.gov.
If you are not vested, you have two options: 1) Take a refund of your account value. A refund can either be paid to you or rolled over to an eligible retirement plan. 2) Leave your money in TFFR and take a refund at a later date.
More information about TFFR account refunds is available in the Teachers’ Fund for Retirement Member Handbook.
To receive a refund of a TFFR account, login into your MyTFFR account using the link found on the Retirement and Investment Office’s (RIO) website to complete and submit a Withdrawal Application. The refund may either be paid in a direct rollover to an IRA or another qualified plan or paid to the member. If you don’t have an account login, you may need to create one using your personal information. If you need assistance, contact RIO at 701-328-9885 or rio@nd.gov.