Alternative Retirement Plan (ARP)

Faculty, classified and unclassified staff members who are appointed to work on at least a 75% Annual Full-time Equivalency basis are eligible to enroll in the Alternative Retirement Plan (ARP) during the first 120 days of their eligible employment. Enrollment in the ARP is in place of enrollment in the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS Ohio) for eligible faculty members and in place of enrollment in the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) for classified and unclassified staff members.

The Alternative Retirement Plan is a defined contribution retirement plan in which the employee’s retirement benefit is determined by the amount of money, including investment earnings, which the employee accumulates in an ARP annuity account. With the ARP, disability and survivor benefits are equal to the lump sum balance in the employee’s ARP account.

An employee contribution to the ARP (10.00% of the employee's pay) is deducted on a pre-tax basis from the employee’s earnings and is deposited in the employee’s ARP account with an approved annuity vendor which the employee selects. The university makes an employer contribution to the ARP (in an amount equal to 10.50% of a faculty member’s pay and in an amount equal to 13.23% of a staff member’s pay). This contribution is also deposited in the employee’s ARP account.

In addition, the university makes an employer contribution in an amount equal to 3.50% of earnings to the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS Ohio) for faculty members electing the ARP. This 3.50% of earnings employer contribution is made to STRS Ohio to fund the past service liabilities for STRS and does not provide an additional benefit for an employee electing ARP participation.

For staff members electing the ARP, the university makes an employer contribution in an amount equal to 0.77% of earnings to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS). This 0.77% of earnings employer contribution is made to OPERS to fund the past service liabilities for OPERS and does not provide additional benefit for an employee electing ARP participation.

Effective January 2013, ARP participants are eligible to change their ARP vendor at any time. ARP Vendor Change Forms will be processed based upon receipt in the Department of Human Resources and payroll deadlines. It is the responsibility of the ARP participant to contact the selected vendor to open an account prior to submitting the ARP Vendor Change Form. It is also the participant's responsibility to arrange any desired transfer of existing account balances between the vendors.

Listed below are the ARP vendors currently available to eligible faculty and staff members.