Sheriff members are officers or employees who work for the City and County of San Francisco as the Sheriff, undersheriffs, or deputized personnel of the Sheriff’s Department and who are covered under the provisions for a pension of the SFERS Sheriff Plan.
Membership
As a member of the SFERS Sheriff Plan, you have access to two benefit programs:
A Pension Plan (defined benefit plan): provides retirement benefits calculated using a formula based on age at retirement, years of credited service, and final pensionable compensation.
457(b) Deferred Compensation Plan (defined contribution plan): allows participants to acquire additional tax-deferred retirement savings through voluntary contributions intended to complement your pension benefits
The SFERS Pension Plan is funded through employer contributions (paid by the City), member contributions (paid by you), and investment earnings.
Each pay period, mandatory retirement contributions are deducted from your paycheck to help with the cost of your retirement benefits. Contributions are deducted before taxes and are calculated as a percentage of your salary. This percentage is your “member contribution rate”.
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:
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.
This is your SFERS! We are here to assist you. Our office is open BY APPOINTMENT ONLY for limited services. For information on conducting business with SFERS, visit the Contact Us page.
