Your pension is administered by your system, not by us, and we cannot change your benefit. What we do is model how it interacts with everything else you own — so the decisions that cannot be undone, like survivor elections and service credit purchases, get made with the full picture in view.
Find your system
CalPERS
State, school and many local agency employees — including the City of Norwalk.
CalSTRS
California educators: teachers, counsellors and administrators.
LACERA
Los Angeles County employees, general and safety.
OCERS
Orange County employees and participating agencies.
LAFPP
Los Angeles fire and police.
LACERS
City of Los Angeles civilian employees.
UC Retirement Plan
University of California employees, including UC medical centres.
403(b) plans
The supplemental plan most California educators are offered — and rarely review.
457(b) deferred comp
Governmental deferred compensation, alongside the pension.
The decisions that matter most
Several pension choices are permanent once filed. These are the ones worth modelling before you sign.
Survivor benefit elections
Permanent, and made once.
Buying service credit
Sometimes excellent value. Sometimes not. It is arithmetic.
Pension vs lump sum
What California systems actually offer — and what they do not.
DROP programs
For public safety members: model it before you enter.
CalSTRS 2% at 60 vs 2% at 62
Which structure applies to you, and what changes.
CalSTRS and Social Security
WEP and GPO were repealed in January 2025. Most older guidance is wrong.
LACERA plan comparison
Plans A through G, and why yours depends on when you joined.
OCERS tiers
Which tier you are in, and what it means.
One thing most guidance still gets wrong. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed in January 2025, repealed WEP and GPO. Public pension recipients now receive unreduced Social Security benefits earned from other work. A great deal of advice still online predates that change — check the date on anything you read, including ours.
Where we're actually useful
- Survivor elections. Reducing your benefit permanently in exchange for continuing payments to a beneficiary — whether that trade is right depends on your spouse's own benefits, your other assets, and insurance you may already hold.
- Service credit purchases. Cost against age factor against how long you'll collect.
- The 403(b) or 457(b) alongside. Many California public employees hold high-cost annuity products sold at work. Reviewing what you actually own is often the highest-value hour we spend.
- Everything else you own. The pension is one asset. Coordinating it with IRAs, a spouse's plan, Social Security timing and taxes is the actual planning work.
Model it before you file
Survivor and service-credit decisions are permanent. Fifteen minutes, no cost, either language.