Retirement Checklist

Make sure you look at the projected retirement income when you receive information about your basic and supplemental retirement. We advise that you set up a meeting with your investment carrier every five years to check how close to your target goal you are with your basic, supplemental and any other retirement accounts.

Before Retirement

Five Years Before Retirement

  • List all bills and estimate those you can pay off and the those you will always have.
  • Estimate how much income you will need once you start retirement.
  • Estimate out how much extra income you will need to fight inflation.
  • Start to reduce your income by putting more money into your Supplemental Retirement Annuity account. By doing this you'll have more in savings when you retire and more importantly, it can get your income to the income you will have at retirement. This gives you the opportunity to see if you can afford to retire at this time.

One Year Before Retirement

  • Print the Retiree Information Sheet.
  • Check with your local Social Security Office to make sure you know how much income you will receive and what paperwork you will need to secure these funds as well as any rules affecting this income.
  • Use the Online Pension Calculation Tool to run an estimated calculation of your Plan B pension benefit. View the tool's instructions.
  • Talk to your investment carrier to obtain and confirm estimate and options.
  • Talk to the benefits specialist to check on the cost of health insurance.
  • Investigate other Medicare supplement health plans.

Four Months Before Retirement

  • Print the Retiree Rates
  • Set a Date—you do not have to make an announcement to your department at this time.
  • Go to the Social Security Office to make arrangements for Social Security and Medicare.

Three Months Before Retirement

  • Use the Online Pension Calculation Tool to run an estimated calculation of your Plan B pension benefit. View the tool's instructions.
  • Contact a Case Western Reserve benefits specialist for assistance with obtaining and completing retirement documents.
  • If you are electing to go into Case Western Reserve's health insurance plan, begin the paperwork.
  • Contact any other employer(s) to begin paperwork for their retirement account.

One Month Before Retirement

  • Contact your supplemental carrier to talk about your final arrangements.
  • Plan something special to celebrate.

After Retirement

  • Provide mailing address changes to all sources of retirement income as they occur.
  • Contact the Benefits Office for changes in direct deposit accounts for pension annuity payments.