The Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) provides a health insurance premium benefit to qualified retirees and employees who receive a long-term disability (LTD) income benefit. In order to ensure your retirees and LTD recipients who elect health insurance receive the correct premium benefit subsidy, the ASRS annually requests that employers provide their updated Health Insurance Plans and Premiums for the following benefit year. 

Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 401(a)17 is a limit on compensation beyond which no further retirement contributions may be deducted from an employee’s earnable salary for a given year. This limit applies to all ASRS members, but the actual maximum differs depending on the member’s enrollment date.

Do you have an employee who you submitted a long term disability (LTD) claim packet for, or an employee that is currently on LTD? If you answered yes to either of these questions, please note the following:

The Employer Administrator is responsible for authorizing access to the applications available on the ASRS secure employer website for registered employer users.

Each employer must certify the amount of member and employer contributions on each payroll and submit that amount to the ASRS on a due date prescribed by the ASRS Board of Trustees. (A.R.S. § 38-735)

Retirement can be an exciting yet challenging time for soon-to-be retirees. While employers play an important part after a member retires by ensuring we receive their Ending Payroll Verification form in a timely manner, you can also play an important role before an employee retires. 

Each year the ASRS conducts reviews of employer accounts to ensure that our employer partners follow guidelines established in Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) 38-711 through 38-794, as well as Arizona Administrative Code (AAC) Title 2 Chapter 8.

From September through the first week of October, the Employer Relations Team hosted eight virtual Employer Conferences. This year’s conference was designed much differently from previous virtual conferences in answer to feedback from the 2021 conferences. 

As we close out calendar year 2022, the ASRS wants to remind you about the importance of reporting contributions accurately and in a timely manner. The purpose of this reminder is to help our employers avoid late fees and, in some cases, the potentially expensive result of creating an unfunded liability.

If you are the designated Employer Web Administrator for your organization, there are several responsibilities that you should be aware of.