LACERA administers a series of general member plans (A through E, and Plan G) and separate safety member plans, each with its own contribution rules, benefit formula and retirement ages. Which plan covers you was mostly determined by when you were hired — Plan G is the PEPRA plan for members who joined on or after 1 January 2013 — with a few historical election windows, such as the non-contributory Plan E. Confirm your plan on your LACERA statement or member portal before planning anything; every number downstream depends on it.
How to read this page. This is a framework, not a recommendation. There is no answer here that fits everyone — only the inputs that drive your answer. Run the numbers with us, or run them on your own; either way, run them before you file.
The plan map, structurally
LACERA operates under the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (the "'37 Act"). Over the decades, the County has opened and closed a sequence of plans, so the letter you carry mostly encodes your hire era:
- General Plans A, B and C — through 31 May 1979; Plan D — 1 June 1979–31 December 2012.
- General Plan E — 4 January 1982–26 November 2012. Plan E is non-contributory, has its own elective COLA terms and different disability and survivor coverage.
- General Plan G — the PEPRA plan for members who first joined on or after 1 January 2013: PEPRA formula, three-year final compensation averaging, and the PEPRA cap on pensionable compensation (adjusted annually).
- Safety Plans A and B — through 31 December 2012; Safety Plan C — 1 January 2013–present.
Source: LACERA active-member plans.
We deliberately publish no formulas, ages or percentages for these plans here: LACERA's own publications state them precisely per plan, and a decision page that paraphrases them invites error. Everything below is about structure and process.
What actually differs between the plans
Contributions
Whether you contribute at all (Plan E members historically did not), and at what rate — per LACERA's current rate schedules for your plan and, under PEPRA, cost-sharing rules.
The formula
Age factors, the final compensation averaging period, and any caps differ by plan. Plan G members have PEPRA's three-year averaging and compensation cap; earlier plans follow their own '37 Act formulas — per LACERA, plan by plan.
Retirement eligibility
Minimum ages and service requirements differ across the letters, and safety plans differ from general plans throughout. Your earliest unreduced date is a plan-specific fact worth getting in writing from LACERA.
Ancillary benefits
Plan E is non-contributory, has its own elective COLA terms and different disability and survivor coverage. Confirm with your system.
Planning around the plan you are in
- First, identify the plan — actually verify it. Long-tenured members who transferred between departments, left and returned, or made a historical plan election are the ones most often carrying a different letter than they assume. It is printed on your LACERA annual statement and shown in the member portal.
- Then get LACERA's estimate, not a spreadsheet guess. Every decision on this site — survivor elections, service credit, retirement timing — should start from LACERA's own benefit estimate for your plan.
- Plan G members: mind the cap. The PEPRA compensation cap means high earners in Plan G accrue pension on capped pay only; the County's supplemental savings vehicles carry more of the load, and contribution strategy there matters correspondingly more.
- Plan E members and former Plan E members: A prospective transfer to Plan D takes effect the first of the month after 30 days; buying Plan E service is optional; it cannot be rescinded and you cannot return to Plan E for three years. An Open Window transfer requires buying all Plan E service and opens only in designated periods (currently for SEIU Local 721 members); pay by lump sum or payroll deduction over up to 10 years.
- The Fairness Act applies here too. County positions outside Social Security coverage no longer trigger WEP/GPO reductions to Social Security earned elsewhere — the repeal covered all such pensions, not just teachers'. What changed →
Reciprocity if you move systems
Per LACERA, you generally must join the other reciprocal system within six months, leave contributions on deposit, and have no overlapping service; reciprocity based on pre-2013 membership may keep pre-PEPRA status. You must retire concurrently from each system. Confirm the other system's rules too.
Where to verify
- Your LACERA annual benefit statement — plan letter, service credit, contributions.
- The LACERA member portal at lacera.com, and LACERA's per-plan publications.
- A LACERA retirement counselor, in writing, for anything this page marks as confirm-first.
Common questions
Common questions
Can I switch from Plan G to Plan D?
No — plan membership is set by hire date and law, not preference. The narrow exceptions are historical election windows (such as Plan E transfers) and reciprocity rules that can preserve a pre-PEPRA tier when you move between systems properly. Both are LACERA-rules questions; confirm directly.
Which plan is 'best'?
Nobody gets to choose, so the useful question is what your plan implies: how much supplemental saving your formula calls for, when your unreduced date falls, and how the plan's survivor and COLA features shape the elections you will make. That is modeling against your plan, not ranking plans.
I worked for the County years ago, took a refund, and came back. Which plan am I in?
That is exactly the situation where assumptions fail — refunds, redeposits and rehire dates interact under LACERA's rules. Get LACERA to state your plan and your redeposit options in writing, then model from that.
Model it before you file
These elections are permanent. We will run the arithmetic with you — your numbers, every scenario on one page — while they are still choices. Fee-only, fully disclosed, no products to sell you.