If you receive your payment via paper check, or if you’re on direct deposit and your monthly benefit payment changes, you will receive a statement in the mail


1) Check Information

This section shows the effective pay date, the check number and the check amount.

2) Check Message

The MTRS uses this space to inform retirees of important information.

3) Benefit Recipient Information

This section displays your personal identification data.

4) Earnings

This section outlines the components that make up your monthly benefit payment. Your gross pay is broken into the following components:

  • BASE: Your total monthly benefit amount plus any past cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs).
  • COLA: The monthly amount for the current year’s COLA, if any.
  • BASE-ADJ: If applicable, the amount of an adjustment to your payment.

5) Deductions

This section itemizes all the deductions that come out of your monthly benefit payment. They could be any of the following, depending on your situation.

If you have insurance through:

  • the state’s Group Insurance program, the amount withheld for your group health and life insurance premium will be listed as “GROUP INS,” and any amount withheld for a dental insurance premium will be listed as “GIC DNTL.”
  • your former school district’s program, an individual premium amount for each type of insurance coverage will appear:
    • MEDICAL D: Cost of the first health insurance which you carry through your group insurance program. [Note: The “D” is for our coding purposes only; it does not represent anything related to your particular coverage.]
    • MEDICAL I: Cost of additional health insurance coverage if your spouse or any dependents are included in your coverage. [Note: The “I” is for our coding purposes only; it does not represent anything related to your particular coverage.]
    • DENTAL: Cost of your dental coverage (if offered by your group insurance program).
    • LIFE INSU: Cost of your basic life insurance (normally, between $1,000 and $12,500 worth of coverage). You can contact your Benefits Coordinator at your district to determine the value and beneficiaries of your life insurance policy.
    • OPTIONAL: Cost of any optional life insurance coverage you may have (if offered by your group insurance program).
    • OTHER MED: Cost of your vision coverage (if offered by your group insurance program).

Note: If your health insurance premiums are deducted from your monthly payment, and a minus sign (-) appears before the amount, the minus sign means that the amount was REFUNDED to you in this month’s payment. Refunds are made when you have overpaid your insurance premium, for example, as the result of your insurance provider processing a decrease in your monthly premium or a correction to your deduction amount.

If you receive your benefit by direct deposit (also known as electronic funds transfer), you will note that your bank’s routing number, your bank account number and the type of account are also listed on the statement. For security purposes, only the last four digits of your banking numbers appear; the initial numbers are replaced with Xs.