Updated October 30, 2026. Quick answer: For general members of the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System (NDPERS) Main plan, Century Code section 54-52-17 sets the normal retirement date as the first day of the month after reaching age 65, or when years of service credit and years of age equal 85 for members first enrolled before 2016. For members first enrolled after December 31, 2015, the combined total is 90 with a minimum age of 60. Early retirement opens at age 55 with 3 years of eligible employment. The Main plan closed to employees hired January 1, 2025 or later.
The Main plan is closed to new hires
“Effective January 1, 2025, the Main Defined Benefit Retirement Plan closed to newly enrolled new employees hired January 1, 2025 or later.”
Normal retirement, enrolled before 2016
The statute sets the normal retirement date as “The first day of the month next following the month in which the member attains the age of sixty-five years”. Or: “When the member has a combined total of years of service credit and years of age equal to eighty-five and has not received a retirement benefit under this chapter.”
Normal retirement, enrolled after 2015
For members first enrolled after December 31, 2015, the age-plus-service test differs. The statute excludes certain public safety employees from this section, and they are not covered here. For the rest: “When the member has a combined total of years of service credit and years of age equal to ninety and the member attains a minimum age of sixty and has not received a retirement benefit under this chapter.”
Early retirement
For early retirement the statute says the date “is the first day of the month next following the month in which the member attains the age of fifty-five years and has completed three years of eligible employment.” “Early retirement benefits are calculated as for single life benefits accrued to the date of termination of employment, but must be actuarially reduced to account for benefit payments beginning before the normal retirement date, as determined under subsection 3.” The statute excepts national guard security officers, firefighters, dispatchers, emergency medical services personnel, correctional officers, peace officers and judges from the later group’s fixed rate. For the later group: “for members first enrolled after December 31, 2015, are calculated for single life benefits accrued to the date of termination of employment, but must be reduced by fixed rate of eight percent per year to account for benefit payments beginning before the normal retirement date.”
Leaving before you retire
The statute says that, upon termination of employment after completing three years of eligible employment, “a member who does not elect to receive early retirement benefits is eligible to receive deferred vested retirement benefits payable commencing on the member’s normal retirement date”.
What the pension is based on
The statute words the benefit by enrollment date. For a member first enrolled before January 1, 2020: “Before January 1, 2020, service benefit equals two percent of final average salary multiplied by the number of years of service employment.” For a member first enrolled after December 31, 2019: “After December 31, 2019, service benefit equals one and seventy-five hundredths percent of final average salary multiplied by the number of years of service employment.” For final average salary, the statute’s next sentence, for members who terminate employment after December 31, 2019, makes it the higher of the figure calculated on December 31, 2019 or the average salary earned in the three highest periods of twelve consecutive months employed during the last 180 months of employment. The earlier rule, which still governs a termination between August 1, 2010 and the end of 2019, reads: “For members who terminate employment on or after August 1, 2010, final average salary is the average of the highest salary received by the member for any thirty-six months employed during the last one hundred eighty months of employment.”
What the documents do not say
The NDPERS Main plan web page states only the January 1, 2025 closure and sends readers to the Main Handbook for the formula; the eligibility rules here come from North Dakota Century Code section 54-52-17. The Main Handbook itself was not located; a retiree handbook was found and prints no eligibility rules or formula. The actuarial reduction schedule for members first enrolled before 2016 is not printed in the statute, so no percentage is given for them. The statute does not print the labels Rule of 85 or Rule of 90; they are shorthand for the age-plus-service sentences quoted. For the defined benefit pension the statute sets only the 3-year deferred vested entitlement; a separate section covers vested employer contributions to deferred-compensation accounts. The prior service benefit, the final average salary text for terminations before August 1, 2010, the defined contribution plan, disability retirement and the occupational groups are not covered.
Common mistakes
- Using the Rule of 85 for someone first enrolled after December 31, 2015. The statute uses 90 with a minimum age of 60 for that group.
- Expecting the same early retirement cut for both groups. Members first enrolled before 2016 are reduced actuarially and later members by a fixed rate.
- Assuming a new hire can join the Main plan. It closed to employees hired January 1, 2025 or later.
Related: North Dakota NDPERS retirement decisions, the North Dakota NDPERS COLA for 2027, how public pension decisions work, and whether North Dakota taxes pensions.
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Answer againSources
- North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System, Defined Benefit Hybrid Retirement Plan (Main) for Active Members: www.ndpers.nd.gov
- North Dakota Legislative Assembly, North Dakota Century Code Chapter 54-52, Public Employees Retirement System: ndlegis.gov
- Related official page (not quoted): IRS Tax Topic 410, Pensions and annuities: www.irs.gov
- Related official page (not quoted): IRS Tax Topic 411, Pensions: the General Rule and the Simplified Method: www.irs.gov
Read from the primary documents linked above on October 30, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer or the IRS itself is the right place to confirm anything consequential.