Faculty Retirement

Welcome to the Bentley University Faculty Retirement Website. Here, you will find an abundance of resources to help you think about and plan for retirement, regardless of how far or close you are to that stage of your career.

The information on this site addresses finances, lifestyle considerations, and psycho-social concerns from a faculty perspective wherever possible. You’ll find tools and resources ranging from a retirement planning checklist and savings calculator to topical articles.

Bentley Flexible Phased Retirement for Faculty

Bentley has adopted a Flexible Phased Retirement Plan for tenured faculty aged 65 and older who have at least ten years of full-time, tenure-track or tenured service. The program's goal is to offer a balance between personal and professional needs as faculty transition to retirement. Its flexibility allows retiring faculty members, in conjunction with department chairs and the academic administration, to craft a phased retirement plan beneficial to all parties.

Bentley University Faculty Phased Retirement

PHASED RETIREMENT POLICY FOR TENURED FACULTY

In order to be eligible for phased retirement, a tenured faculty member must be 65 years old and have at least ten years of full-time service with Bentley. There are two options for the phase out, a one year option and a two year option.

One Year Phase Out
Faculty member works 50% of his or her normal teaching load and receives 50% pay and the same medical and dental benefits as full time employees. Benefits that are tied to salary (life insurance and 403b contributions) will reflect the reduced salary.

Two Year Phase Out
Year One: Faculty member works 75% of his or her normal teaching load and receives 75% pay and the same medical and dental benefits as full time employees. Benefits that are tied to salary level (life insurance and 403b contributions) will reflect the reduced salary.
Year Two: Faculty member works 50% of his or her normal teaching load and receives 50% pay and the same medical and dental benefits as full-time employees. Benefits that are tied to salary level (life insurance and 403b contributions) will reflect the reduced salary.

PHASED RETIREMENT FOR SENIOR LECTURERS

Those Senior Lecturers who reached age 60 and have ten years of service on or before July 1, 2020 and who chose not to participate in the previous phased retirement policy, will be eligible for a one year phase out. The Senior Lecturer will teach a 50% course load and receive 50% of his or her pay as well as the same medical and dental benefits as full-time employees. Benefits that are tied to salary level (life insurance and 403b contributions) will reflect the reduced salary. Eligible Senior Lecturers may opt into this one year program at any time during their employment at Bentley. Employees who have not reached age 60 or the required level of service on or before July 1, 2020 will not be eligible for a phased retirement.

Planning the Phasing Period - Faculty must apply to their dean by February 1st each year for a start date of September of the same year. The faculty member and dean negotiate the specific terms of the agreement, consistent with the policy guidelines; each agreement must be reviewed by HR and approved by the Provost.

Teaching After Retirement - At the discretion of the Dean, faculty members may teach at Bentley after they retire. The assignment will be negotiated at the time retirement is discussed. While teaching, faculty members may continue to use their pre-retirement title.

Prioritizing Phased Retirement Requests - If more faculty members apply for retirement phase-out than their department can accommodate in a given year, priority will be given on the basis of length of service, including both tenure track and tenured service.

Faculty and Staff Retirement Benefits

Fidelity Investments and TIAA - Both of Bentley's retirement investment vendors offer tools, resources, and counseling to help you meet your financial goals for retirement. Refer to the Bentley University Retirement Plan webpage. Some of these resources are listed below.

Employees may direct Bentley and/or voluntary contributions to the complete line up of investment options. For more information on your investment options in the plan and to obtain a free prospectus, call:

TIAA at 1-800-842-2776 or visit the website.

Fidelity Investments at 1-800-343-0860 or visit the website.

Pre-retirement Planning Tools and Calculators – These tools provide users with the ability to analyze savings and spending patterns to project future income based on current financial behaviors.

Fidelity Retirement Savings Worksheet – Offers a variety of resources and online calculators for retirement planning and investing. You can obtain an in-depth analysis of your current portfolio, establish a plan to save, learn basic investing concepts, obtain term life insurance quotes, or research stocks. Check this site for a wide array of financial tools.
Fidelity Living on Retirement Income Tools and Calculators - Helps users better prepare to make investment income last through the retirement years. It provides advice on how to shift from retirement savings to retirement income, how to make sure you have enough money to last throughout retirement, and related matters.
TIAA Tools and Calculators – You can use this budget sheet to get a better idea about essential and discretionary expenses, since retirees sometimes find that their essential spending is consuming more of their income than they had hoped, leaving less “room” for discretionary spending.

Consider listening to a retirement planning webcast:

TIAA Retirement Countdown, provided by TIAA (running time: 15 minutes)
Preserving Your Savings for Future Generations, provided by Fidelity (running time: 24 minutes)

Consider scheduling a one-on-one appointment with a Fidelity Investments or TIAA representative. Refer to the Bentley University Retirement Plan webpage for One-on-One Schedules or the HR Home Page.

Explore this site - to learn more about Bentley’s retiree medical program, medical insurance and rates, dental plan, life insurance, disability, and related issues. Please note that employees hired after 1/1/2000 are not eligible to participate in Bentley Retiree Medical program.

Bentley Contact Information

Benefits – For Benefits information, contact Sandy Smith, Senior Benefits Specialist at Ext.2817 or ssmith@bentley.edu.

Academic Affairs - To discuss retirement, contact the Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, Mystica Alexander, at malexander@bentley.edu.

Government Resources for Financial Planning

Whether you plan to retire in a year or ten years, you are probably considering financial questions. How long might your retirement years last? Will the money you have saved last long enough? What kind of lifestyle do you expect and will the money you've saved meet your needs? To answer these and other questions, explore some of the pre-retirement financial resources below.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is part of the U.S. Department of Labor. EBSA’s site provides a wealth of consumer information about health and retirement plans, including laws and regulations, technical guidance, FAQs, and the ability to sign up for a bi-weekly consumer update.

Check these EBSA links to learn more about specific topics:

Consumer Information on Retirement Saving – This site is arranged by career stage, from new entrants, to mid-career, and for those nearing retirement. It includes links to many of the documents listed below, and to other pages within the EBSA site.
Retirement Toolkit – This resource is jointly produced by the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Social Security Administration, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This is an indispensable guide to navigating the retirement process. The toolkit includes four pages of links to additional information, and covers a variety of topics such as Women and Retirement Savings and A Look at 401K Plan Fees.
Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement Planning – You can read this colorful 62-page booklet on-line, download it, or order it through the mail. It includes multiple links to calculators, money magazines, and federal agencies.
Top Ten Ways to Prepare for Retirement – An online publication that offers simple steps to encourage saving for retirement.
Saving Fitness: A Guide to Your Money and Your Financial Future – According to this 47-page booklet from EBSA and the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, retirement is the biggest purchase you will ever make. As the title suggests, being in good financial shape is like being physically fit. Since this booklet can be alarmist in tone, it is perhaps worth reading if you are approaching your “retirement purchase” with any degree of complacency.

Health and Well-being Throughout Your Retirement Years

When planning for retirement, it is easy to place financial concerns at the forefront of the process and overlook the importance of your future health and wellbeing. Whether you are thinking about retirement or you have already made the transition, you might want to consider and explore questions about mental and physical health, lifestyle, and emotional adjustments. Retirement might change the way you approach your emotional and physical wellbeing.

Explore this site for information about and reflections upon retirement's impact on lifestyle, intellectual pursuits, psycho-social concerns, and overall health.

Articles and Manuscripts

Life after Retirement: Behavioral and Psychological Aspects of the Retirement Decision Explores a number of behavioral factors that influence the retirement decision. This online article was published in 2011 by a Research Analyst in the Office of Retirement and Disability Policy, Social Security Administration.
In Search of a Professor's Legacy Read this poignant article about his late father, professor emeritus at Wharton, David Perlmutter notes, “I do know that all of us making decisions about retirement need to be encouraged, enabled, and supported to think through our intellectual transition as much as our physical and fiscal ones.” Chronicle of Higher Ed – In Search of a Professor’s Legacy – by Perlmutter, David D., The Chronicle of Higher Education (Mar 18, 2012)
Prepare your Retirement Psychological Portfolio along with your financial portfolio.
Reflections upon University Retirement examines the end of mandatory retirement in American higher education, research related to faculty retirement decisions, and the author's thoughts before and during retirement from academic life. Reflections upon University Retirement: With Thanks and Apologies to James Joyce, Euster, Gerald L.Educational Gerontology, v30 n2 p119-128 2004
Leisure and the Retired Professor: Occupation Matters reports on a small study of the leisure activities of retired academics. Educational Gerontology, 31: 343–361, 2005 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Inc. ISSN: 0360-1277 print=1521-0472 online, DOI: 10.1080/03601270590921645
The University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study investigates the health transitions people face toward the end of their working years.

Bentley Faculty Retirement Handbook

The Bentley Faculty Retirement Handbook will be available soon.