DoD courses begin for modernized military retirement plan
DoD courses begin for modernized military retirement plan
The Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act provides our military force with a modernized retirement plan. The new system is a blend of the current 20-year cliff-vested defined benefit annuity with a defined contribution plan that allows service members to contribute to a portable Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) account. Quality and timely financial education (similar to a 401k savings plan) is the key to success in implementing the Blended Retirement System (BRS) on Jan. 1, 2018.DoD is on track to provide targeted information to prepare our 2.1 million service members and their families in the form of four separate, jointly-developed education courses. Starting this summer, these BRS courses will be available in a distributed learning environment via the Joint Knowledge On-line (JKO) portal as well as on MilitaryOneSource for easy access by family members. Deployed service members’ commands will receive CD rom courses. The BRS Leader Course, just released, is available at: http://jko.jten.mil/courses/brs/leader_training/Launch_Course.html#The course is designed to provide military and civilian leaders across the force with a basic familiarity of the components of BRS, an understanding that many of their members will have an option to “opt-in” to the new retirement system in 2018, the major milestones for implementing the new system, and the resources available for additional information. This computer-based course will aid leaders as they inform their personnel on the upcoming implementation of the new system.