For a lot of public employees, the pension is the one part of retirement they assume is taken care of.
You show up, you work your years, and one day a check starts arriving in the mail. No need to check in. No decisions to make. Right?
Not quite.
The Myth of the Guaranteed Outcome
Pensions are incredibly valuable, but they’re not autopilot. There’s a wide range in how much someone might receive, even between two employees who worked the same number of years. What you earn at retirement depends on more than just time served.
It depends on when you retire, where you retire, how your salary changed, which system you're in, and how your service years were counted. It even depends on decisions you made years ago that you may not remember, like tier enrollment or reciprocal service.
The “set it and forget it” mindset is easy to fall into. But it can leave thousands of dollars on the table.
What Changes What You Get
Here’s just a sample of what can change your pension amount:
- Taking a promotion in a new county
- Moving from CalPERS to a ’37 Act system or vice versa
- A break in service that resets your benefit formula
- Returning to work after retirement
- Choosing between monthly income vs. a partial lump sum
- Getting divorced and not updating your beneficiary
- Moving to another state and paying different taxes
Each of these decisions comes with tradeoffs. Most employees don’t realize that until they’re close to or already retired. By then, it’s too late to change course.
Planning is Power
The good news is, none of this is out of your control. You just need the right tools to see the full picture ahead of time.
Advanced Pension was built to fill in those gaps. It helps you project your pension across CalPERS, CalSTRS, and all 20 ’37 Act systems, while accounting for life changes like divorce, raises, relocation, and career shifts.
Instead of one system at a time, you get a unified view. Instead of waiting weeks for a paper estimate, you get results in minutes.
You’ve Earned This. Make It Work for You.
You’ve put in the years. Now make sure you’re getting every dollar you deserve.
Don’t assume it’s all taken care of. Check in. Run the numbers. See how different paths can affect your outcome.
Retirement is time to sit back and relax, not to find out you misunderstood the rules.
Take the guesswork out of your pension.
See your full estimate today