SOAR
Saving Our Alaska Retirement
SOAR is an NEA-Alaska committee dedicated to ensuring Alaska educators have access to a secure retirement after their service to our public schools. In 2006, Alaska abandoned its defined benefit retirement system and put in place a defined contribution system.
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Through informational sessions, trainings, and legislative advocacy, our members are the driving force behind changing the current system and restoring a retirement with dignity for all Alaska public employees.
Our association has supported legislation and built coalitions with other public sector unions to advance our cause. Unfortunately, these efforts have encountered considerable political pushback and have never come to fruition.
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The SOAR committee is working to change this.
Empower Retirement is the state TRS/PRS retirement fiduciary manager. The system is entirely online and can be accessed at any time. Essentially you pay up to 8% and the district matches up to 7% of your pay into this retirement account. The money is then invested into "targeted retirement trusts" that are a mix of low risk stocks in an attempt to ensure a small and steady ROI. Since this is a stock market based account, there is absolutely 0 guarantee that your money will be there, or even that it will accumulate an amount over what is put into it.
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The state retirement plan has a tiered "vested" structure. Each full year that you work in Alaska earns you 25% vestment in your retirement. This means that after five full years you are 100% vested, and all of the money in the account belongs to you. If you leave at any point before that, you are only entitled to whatever percent vested you are.
For example, after your second year you're 25% vested, which means you would keep 100% of your contributions, and only 25% of the district contributions if you were to leave.
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Vestment levels:
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1st Year: 0%
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2nd Year: 25%
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3rd Year: 50%
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4th Year: 75%
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5th Year: 100%