Below are some helpful links for assessing retirement readiness or projecting retirement readiness. Many faculty find having a link to the Academic Salary Scales helpful as they begin to deliberate about the best time to retire.

Retirement At Your Service-UCRAYS--Use the UCOP Retirement At Your Service site UCRAYS for viewing your service credit, seeing a UCRP retirement estimator for your benefits, accessing retirement status tracker and document upload features, editing contact information, and adjusting your beneficiaries.  

At Your Service -- While many retirement related features have transitioned to UCRAYS,  at your service will continue to house information about historical W2s before the transition to UC PATH and historical paycheck information.

My UC Retirement – Well before retirement, many appointees are interested in seeing how to maximize their pensions in the golden years.  Visit this page for information on saving and investing. A useful projection tool is the Retirement Review feature on this page.

Fidelity Retirement Services: Fidelity Retirement Services is the record-keeping and account services company for the UC Retirement Savings Program [Defined Contribution, Tax-Deferred 403(b), and 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plans]. Fidelity can provide account balances and other information about your accounts. In addition, it has interactive planning tools and other information to help you plan for your financial needs in retirement.  UC San Diego appointees can meet with a Fidelity Planning and Advice Consultant at any time, for a one on one meeting, by requesting a consultation at 1-800-343-0860 or visiting their request a consultation page.

UCnet Retirement Benefits –Visit the UC-wide retirement page for many resources, including a Retirement planning resources page with links to online tools, schedules for retirement benefit classes and webinars, and contact information for the UC Retirement Administration Service Center (RASC). You may also read about plan eligibilities and retirement plan provisions by date of hire, learn how to designate beneficiaries, and see the UC Retirement Handbook for more helpful guidance.

Blink Benefits Representatives – For a more detailed assessment, you can contact a UC San Diego benefits counselor about your years of service, potential retirement benefits according to your employment, and more. 

See this video from RASC on preparing for retirement.

UCnet Retiree Health and Welfare Benefits  -- UC Net's page on continuation and change of benefits post-retirement is helpful.   When you speak with a campus benefits representative, ask how your retirement will affect your health and welfare benefits coverage.

Regardless of whether a Pathways to Retirement program or an Academic Recall agreement is initiated, it’s often best practice for faculty members to check in with their departments before they leave concerning how faculty retirement will affect pre-retirement privileges such as department voting rights, office space, facility use, and membership on doctoral committees. 

Additionally, as faculty prepare for retirement, another factor many are concerned with is finding a "home" for their books. The UC San Diego Library will accept, on a selected basis, many books, personal research papers, manuscripts, letters, and more.  Visit their GiveNow  page or the UC San Diego Gift Planning Home page for donation guidelines.

Before you leave service, you can explore the possibility of an individual Pathways to Retirement Plan, by which you can establish a specific date for retirement up to two years in the future and develop a plan of research, teaching and service prior to separation. You should discuss this with your Chair, who may then choose to develop such a plan in consultation with you, subject to review and approval by your Chair, your Dean, and the EVC. Possible components of such a plan may include a modified teaching schedule for up to one year, a deferral of an upcoming review (which could otherwise entail augmented teaching or service responsibilities), summer ninths for specific research or assignments performed, office or laboratory space, or some other benefit.

The Pathways program is expected to continue until further notice is provided otherwise.

Many faculty have a desire to engage in teaching, in a limited capacity, after they elect to retire. If you are at least 60 years of age with at least 5 years of UCRP service credit, your department chair may consider making a pre-retirement recall agreement. If you are interested in exploring the development of such a plan, please inform your department Chair of your interest. Many times, an appointee will ask a department chair several months before a planned separation date whether or not there may be post-retirement teaching opportunities. A minimum 30-day break in service after the date of retirement is required before a recall appointment begins. A helpful guide from UCOP is called Returning to UC Employment After Retirement.

All recall agreements are subject to curricular need and eligibility restrictions detailed in the APM 205-20.  For the full policy, see the system-wide APM 205, as well as the local PPM 230-205. 

UC academics are appointed on either an Academic or Fiscal Year basis: 

• Academic Year – An academic year appointment is also known as a nine-month appointment and refers to the period during which an academic appointee renders service, i.e., the academic year, from the start of fall term to the end of spring term, and includes periods of intersession. 

• Fiscal Year – A fiscal year appointment is an appointment for service throughout the fiscal year, July 1 through June 30 (12 months) as opposed to the academic year (9 months).

 Individuals appointed on an Academic Year basis for a full academic year are said to have a 9-over-12 appointment and receive their annual academic year salary in twelve (12) equal monthly installments.  These installments are broken into 3 pay periods and represent pay for each of the 3 quarters of the academic year. Please refer to the Academic Salaries – Pay Versus Service Period for additional information. 

• Pay Period – Pay is issued in twelve monthly installments for work performed for the nine-month academic term. The pay period begins on July 1 and ends on June 30 of each academic year.  

• Service Period – Service periods for academic year appointees begins on the first official day of the fall quarter and ends on the last official day of the spring quarter as stated in the applicable academic year calendar. Generally, the service period spans from the middle of September to the middle of June.

 When a 9-over-12 academic appointee separates or retires from University service prior the end an academic year, there may likely be a difference in the amount paid to the appointee vs the length of service provided.  Typically, because the appointee is paid in advance, leaving early results in overpayment and requires that the appointee either complete service obligations through the end of the applicable quarter service period or return pay to the University. 

The salary due for services rendered from the start of the academic quarter or year to the date of separation will be compared with the total salary paid.  If the total salary paid exceeds the total salary due, the academic appointee shall refund the difference to the University.  If the total salary due exceeds the total salary paid, the University shall pay the difference to the academic appointee.

When a faculty member or academic appointee is ready to retire, an important step in the process is providing communication in writing about a projected date of retirement to the appointee’s chair and divisional dean.

For Senate Faculty, until an appointee provides this written notice of intent, the department may not request an emergency replacement FTE or plan for a replacement recruitment, so it's helpful if this notice is provided as early as possible, preferably a year in advance.

Whenever possible, early discussion of intent is a best practice to facilitate both preparing for replacement recruitments and orchestrating clinical or curricular planning. Most academic year appointees choose to retire at the end of June, with a retirement start date of July 1, due to the alignment of payroll and service expectations. For those who plan on a July 1st retirement date, in order to receive the inactive COLA the first year, appointees must have an at least one day break in service immediately before their retirement.   Please consult with your benefits representative about how to establish separation and retirement dates to your advantage.

Fiscal year appointees, such as those in the Health Sciences, tend to have more variable retirement dates due to differences in schedules and year-round duties. 

While some retirement dates are more common than others, official notice of intent to retire can be provided at any time.  

The Benefits Office processing aspect of retirement is separate from the academic side detailed above.  The Benefits Office timeline for the filing of administrative paperwork necessary for retirement with RASC is approximately 3 months before an appointee's projected retirement date.

Eligible faculty members and appointees may be interested in campus benefits such as continued parking and library use.  Appointees with more than 20 years of service may be eligible for complimentary A permits. 

Further, many retired academic appointees are eligible for continued campus library privileges, though retaining remote access to library-licensed resources including databases, e-books, e-journals, streaming video, and music will require a functional Active Directory account. For specific information or about library privileges, the circulation staff can be reached at libraryborrowing@ucsd.edu or (858) 534-0134.   

Visit the When You Retire from UCSD: Employee Checklist to learn about returning any UC property, keeping your permanent address current with UC, and UC San Diego resources post-retirement. 

The UC San Diego Emeriti Association and the UC San Diego Retirement Association are great resources for staying active with the UC San Diego community and connected. Both of these sites provide helpful information about events for retirees, other ways to stay involved with the UC San Diego community, and related perks connected to retirement.

In addition, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UC San Diego is a popular educational and cultural organization for retirees, directed by its members under the administrative auspices of UC San Diego Extension. Its approximately 600 members annually elect a set of officers and a Council to establish policy, oversee the curriculum and activities, control its financial and budget affairs, and generally maintain the organization.

Membership is open to any individual 50 years of age and above who is retired or semi-retired. Members can attend classes according to their own schedule. The only requirement for participation in Osher Lifelong Learning Institute are life experience and a desire to learn.

The title suffix Emerita/Emeritus will be conferred according to the below stated criteria, upon retirement.

 Questions related to the preparation and submission of an Emerita/Emeritus status request should be addressed with your assigned APS AA&C Analyst.

3/26/25 Retirement Planning

4/15/25 Update on Retirement Benefits Academic Senate presentation by Joel E. Dimsdale, MD