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General Assembly Retirement System

Service Retirement

When to Apply

You must file a service retirement application to retire; it is not automatic. We encourage you to file your application as early as six months prior to your desired effective date of retirement but no later than 90 days afterward. However, before a final effective date of retirement can be established, you must be removed from your employer’s payroll unless you are retiring under the age 70 or have 30 years’ service credit special provisions. In all cases, your GARS retirement contributions cease upon retirement.

Included within this handbook are examples of all of the forms you need to apply for service retirement in GARS. You may access these forms on our website or you may obtain additional copies either from the House or Senate’s benefits staff or the Retirement Systems. If you need additional forms or assistance, please contact our Customer Services Department at 803-737-6800, toll free at 800-868-9002 (within S.C. only), or by using our online email form.

If you do not receive notification of the Retirement Systems’ receipt of your application within 10 days after submitting it, contact Customer Services. Please do not leave office until the Retirement Systems has audited your service credit and you receive official notice of your retirement eligibility. This official notice will be sent to you in the mail and is entitled, “Notification of Retirement Eligibility and Estimated Benefit.”

Eligibility

You may be eligible to retire if you satisfy one of the following conditions (see Correlated Retirement Systems in the Membership section if you have an account in more than one retirement system):

  • You have reached 30 years of service and are no longer in the service of the state.
  • You are an active GARS member who has reached age 60, are terminating GARS employment without eight years of service, are going directly into retirement, and are no longer in the service of the state.
  • You are an inactive GARS member who has reached age 60 with at least eight years of service (including correlated retirement systems).
  • You are an active GARS member who has reached age 70 or has 30 years of service credit. You may begin receiving a monthly benefit from GARS while continuing to serve in office. You must retire at the beginning of an annual session of the General Assembly. You will receive your monthly benefit from GARS in lieu of your per diem salary; however, you will still receive your in-district expense allowance. You will not receive any additional line item pay for Speaker of the House, Speaker Pro Tempore of the House, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, or President Pro Tempore of the Senate.
  • You are an active SCRS or PORS member who has reached age 62; you are not currently serving in the General Assembly; and you are eligible to receive retirement benefits from GARS except for current employment with an employer participating in a correlated retirement system.
  • You are an active member of JSRS who has reached age 62 and are otherwise eligible to receive a monthly benefit from GARS.


An individual who is actively participating in SCRS and GARS may participate in the Teacher and Employee Retention Incentive (TERI) program while continuing to participate and contribute to GARS. The member’s monthly benefit from GARS is not subject to an earnings limitation or break-in-service requirement.

Any person who has been an active member of SCRS and who meets all of the requirements and qualifications for retirement, and is or becomes a member of the General Assembly, shall be allowed, at his option, to draw his SCRS retirement benefit (9-1-1610).