The Municipal Police Officers’ Retirement System (MPORS) provides retirement, disability and death benefits to municipal police officers employed by first- and second-class cities, and other cities that adopt the plan. MPORS is a defined benefit plan. The MPORS retirement system is exclusively for members of municipal law enforcement and a large part of MPPA’s mission and legislative activity is geared towards advocating for additional benefits for Montana’s police officers.
For more information about MPORS, visit their website by clicking HERE.
MPORS Basics
- MPORS members can access their retirement after completing 20 years of law enforcement service—regardless of the age at which the 20 years is completed.
- If an MPORS member has completed the 5 year vesting period, but does not complete 20 years of service, then they must wait until age 50 to access their pension benefits.
- The retirement benefit is based on the Final Average Compensation (FAC) of the officer—which is defined as the average pay in the last 36 months of service. The FAC calculation does not include:
- Overtime pay
- Holiday pay
- Shift differential pay
- The MPORS benefit for those with 20 years of service is 50% of the FAC
- For each year of service, you gain 2.5% for each working year, with no limit or cap
- The vesting period for MPORS is 5 years. If an officer does not complete at least 5 years of service, they are not eligible for pension benefits.
- The employee/member contribution is: 09.00%
- The employer/city contribution is: 14.41%
- The state contribution is: a direct contribution from the general fund. In FY 22 the total state contribution was $18.1 Million
- In the event an officer passes, the officers spouse will receive the officers retirement benefits at the same rate that the officer would have received them.
- Recipients of MPORS retirement benefits receive a 3.0% guaranteed annual benefit adjustment or “GABA”
- After 20 years of service, the officer is eligible for the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP).
- The DROP program is entirely optional and is only available for officers that have already worked a full 20 years as a member of MPORS
-
- The DROP program allows an officer to retire, but to continue working for up to 5 years while the retirement benefit they would receive is deposited into an investment account.
-
- If an officer participates in the DROP program, they will be continuing to pay into the MPORS retirement system, but there will be no change in their FAC or their retirement benefit amount.
- Some MPORS members do not pay into Social Security and therefore do not receive Social Security benefits or receive reduced Social Security benefits.
CONTACT MPERA/MPORS
The MPORS retirement system is part of the Montana Public Employee Retirement Administration. If you need to contact anyone about your pension benefits, or if you have questions about MPORS benefits, you can contact MPORS/MPERA directly by calling 1-877-275-7372 or 406-444-3154.
As always, if you need assistance, or if you would like help finding answers to your questions related to the MPORS system, MPPA is always willing to help connect you to the appropriate person within MPERA! Click here to contact MPPA