Retirement Benefits Counselor

State of North Carolina

About The Position

Our mission is to preserve, protect and sustain the state’s pension and healthcare plans, generate investment returns in excess of comparable public pensions, properly account for and report on all funds that are deposited, invested, and disbursed through the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer, assure the financially sound issuance of debt for state and local governments, maintain the state’s “AAA” bond rating, and provide exemplary service across all divisions of the Department. The primary purpose of this position is to assist active & retired state and local government employees, beneficiaries, employers and agencies with retirement and benefit inquiries by counseling and educating them on benefit programs administered by the Retirement Systems Division and with explaining statute details and legislative interpretations. This section receives phone calls and e-mails from employees and employers from all around the state regarding all the different retirement systems and responds to a variety of calls and e-mails from simple, moderately complex to very complex questions. These Counseling Center Counselors are trained as subject matter experts regarding all matters retirement and are equipped to handle even the most complex situations that require additional research and follow up, with an awareness toward customer service.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree from an appropriately accredited institution and two (2) years of experience related to the area of assignment; or an equivalent combination of training and experience.

Responsibilities

Public Contact/Retirement Counseling• Explains and applies interpretations of laws, codes, AG opinions and procedural guides related to the Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System, Local Governmental Employees’ Retirement System, former Law Enforcement Officer’s Retirement System, Separate Insurance Benefits Plan for Law Enforcement Officers, Register of Deeds’ Supplemental Pension Fund and the Disability Income Plan of North Carolina, Legislative Retirement System, Legislative Retirement Fund, Consolidated Judicial Retirement System, National Guard Pension Fund, and the Supplemental Retirement Income Plan.
Assesses individual member situations while applying current statute regulations and communicating the appropriate decision to involved parties; scope includes over 900,000 active, inactive, and retired members, and over 1,500 employers.
Acts as a liaison between other sections and our members, beneficiaries, human resource departments, agencies, and others that contact the Retirement Systems Division.
Educates, assists, counsels, and advises members, their dependents, and/or other involved parties of the benefits programs to determine entitlement, eligibility, timing, privileges, obligations, options and benefits, and explains the applicable provisions.
Objectively analyzes each member’s situation, selects and applies the appropriate regulations and formulas, and communicates the various options available.
Evaluates requests and problems in order to determine the member’s rights or benefits; provides counseling as to the wisdom of certain service purchases, optional payment plans, career changes, beneficiary designations, etc.
Provides technical assistance to agencies and HR professionals in regards to the various retirement systems such as procedural matters, reporting requirements and supplies information to administrative and personnel officials of all agencies covered under the variety of retirement plans.
Interprets a variety of legislation concerning retirement, depending on the date of enrollment, and the laws in place at that time.
Provides advice to members in a variety of organizational structures requiring knowledge of personnel regulations and practices, payroll policies, salary plans and the earning of sick, vacation, bonus, and longevity earnings.
Research• Researches complicated benefit provisions regarding statutory and regulatory changes since these changes are cumulative in effect resulting in the date an event occurs may cause the answer to be different than if the event had happened at an earlier or later date.
Researches more complex cases and responds via e-mail and/or phone call
Researches open cases by working with other departments to understand TATs and responds back to member or employer via e-mail and/or phone call.
Training• Must pass and complete the mandatory 8-week new hire training class followed by on-going quarterly refresher trainings and assessments.
Must participate in quarterly knowledge assessments and on-going training classes as assigned by the Learning and Development department and as requested by leadership.
Must complete a 3-day Customer Service Quality Phone Interaction Skills training and pass on-going weekly quality assessments from randomly pulled call recordings.
Must complete a 9-month re-assessment followed by a 4-week Disability training class within the first 18 months of employment.
Cross-trains in other departments to assist the division as needed and to strengthen the skills of the Member Services department as a whole.
Assists with shadowing, mentoring and quality training of new personnel.
Assists in training members and employers on Orbit Self Service as well as training them on statutes, retirement-on-line and any other retirement/benefit questions or issues as needed.
Assists in training other departments within RSD with case or system issues as discovered through member reports and feedback.
Completes all security, computer and other mandatory training classes as instructed
Participates in peer-to-peer training and coaching
Responsible for staying up-to-date on all information communicated and updated in knowledge systems and desktop guides and in passing random test calls, assessments and scavenger hunt-type activities.
other• Participates in process improvement assignments.
Provides support to other departments within RSD by processing work and working extra hours as needed
Analyzes documented feedback and assists with process improvement opportunities.
Participates in all agency-wide activities, meetings and training events
Ensures that system updates are accurate and thorough
Ensures the security of all members by verifying the identity and contact information of all callers and by reporting anything out-of-the-ordinary, immediately.
Assists with testing technical ticket fixes in a test environment to ensure everything is in order and working properly before implementation
Assists with updating information in the Digital Quick Reference tool
Responsible for providing feedback about placement, wording and helpfulness of quick reference information and other training documents to ensure the team has what’s needed to excel
Performs additional duties as assigned to meet department and division needs.