Safety members are employees of the City and County of San Francisco working as sworn Police Officers or Firefighters covered under the provisions for pension of the SFERS Police and Fire plans.
Membership
As a member of a SFERS safety plan, you have access to two benefit programs:
- A Pension Plan (defined benefit plan): provides service retirement benefits calculated using a formula based on age at retirement, years of service, and final compensation.
- A 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plan (defined contribution plan): allows participants to acquire additional tax-deferred retirement savings through voluntary contributions designed to complement your pension benefits
Contributions
The SFERS Pension Plan is funded through employer contributions (paid by the City), member contributions (paid by you), and investment earnings.
Mandatory pre-tax retirement contributions are deducted from your paycheck each pay period to help with the cost of providing your retirement benefits. Member contributions are calculated as a percentage of your salary, known as the “member contribution rate”.
Benefits
The SFERS Pension Plan is a defined benefit plan providing retirement income funded through member contributions (paid by you), employer contributions (paid by the City), and investment earnings.
Under the SFERS Pension Plan, you can qualify for benefits in three categories:
Frequently Asked Questions
The service you purchased as a non-safety member is credited to you under the miscellaneous plan. When you retire from the safety plan, the miscellaneous service will entitle you to a separate benefit calculated according to the miscellaneous provisions but using your safety compensation. If you are not entitled to receive a miscellaneous benefit, your contributions and interest will be refunded to you.
Only service rendered as a member in a safety plan (police, fire, miscellaneous safety, and sheriff) with the City and County of San Francisco is credited to you as safety service with SFERS. You may choose to either 1) leave the prior safety service with the prior plan, or 2) if your contributions were refunded to you, you may elect to purchase the service under the other plan as “public service” with SFERS. Once the purchase is complete, the service will be credited to you as service under the SFERS Miscellaneous Plan (provided you have other credited service under the miscellaneous plan with SFERS). Please note, if you took a refund, we recommend you inquire with the prior plan about opportunities for redeposit with that plan.
The earliest you can retire voluntarily for service is at age 50 and having earned at least 5 years of credited service. You may apply for ordinary disability retirement for a non-job-related illness or injury regardless of age if you have at least 10 years of service credit. You may apply for industrial disability retirement for a job-related illness or injury regardless of age or service credit. Refer to your Summary of Key Plan Provisions for detailed retirement qualifications.
