WRS Retirement Calculator: Formula or Money Purchase

Updated October 4, 2026. Quick answer: A Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension is the higher of two calculations, and this page runs both: a formula benefit (final average monthly earnings x a multiplier x years of service x an age reduction factor) and a money purchase benefit (your account balance x an age factor). Computed for the booklet’s own sample, a general member retiring at 59 with 5 years of service before 2000, 20 years after 1999 and $2,500.00 final average monthly earnings, the formula gives $971.64 a month (computed). A general member with 30 years and $4,000.00 earnings gets $1,920.00 a month (computed) at 65 and $1,735.68 a month (computed) at 55, because the age reduction runs 0.4% for each month before 65 and shrinks with every month of service. Enter your own numbers below.

Calculate your WRS benefit

This page prices the Wisconsin Retirement System retirement annuity for a general, teacher, educational support or protective occupation member from the formula in the statute and the Department of Employee Trust Funds (ETF) booklet. It runs on this page and sends nothing anywhere. Use the creditable service and earnings on your most recent Statement of Benefits, with service before 2000 and after 1999 entered separately. “The three years used are those in which reported earnings were the highest; they do not need to be consecutive, nor the last years reported.” Enter that average as a monthly dollar amount.

ETF publishes its own calculator, and its page says “This WRS Retirement Benefits Calculator is a tool that can give you an unofficial estimate of your benefit as you plan for retirement.” The same applies here, and ETF’s official estimate is the place to confirm anything you will act on.

The formula, and why there are two methods

The booklet states the rule this way: “ETF calculates your benefit using both methods and automatically pays you the higher amount.” The formula method is “Final Average Monthly Earnings x Creditable Service x Formula Multipliers x Age Reduction Factor (if any)”. The money purchase method is described as “A money purchase monthly retirement benefit is calculated by multiplying your current total contributions (employee- and employer-required contributions, plus accrued interest) by an actuarial factor based on your age when the annuity begins.” The statute sets the multipliers. For most members: “1.765 percent; for such creditable service that is performed on or after January 1, 2000, 1.6 percent.” The percentages by category, as printed in the booklet and the statute:

Computed for the booklet’s sample worksheet, a general member at 59 with $2,500.00 final average monthly earnings, 5 years before 2000 and 20 years after 1999: before 2000 it is $2,500.00 x 1.765% x 5 x 0.952 = $210.04 (computed), after 1999 it is $2,500.00 x 1.6% x 20 x 0.952 = $761.60 (computed), and together $971.64 a month (computed), the same total the booklet prints for that sample.

The age reduction factor

Retiring before the normal retirement age cuts the formula benefit for life. The booklet gives the normal ages: “Age 65: General employees, teachers and educational support staff.” and “Age 54: Protective occupation employees with less than 25 years of creditable service, including creditable military service.” (age 53 with 25 or more years). The statute sets the reduction: “the annuity amount computed under par. (e) shall be reduced by 0.4 percent for each full month, and for each partial month including at least 15 days, before the participant’s normal retirement date”.

For general members the 0.4% is then shrunk by service: “the 0.4 percent reduction of the annuity amount under subd. 1. shall be reduced by subtracting from the 0.4 percent an amount equal to 0.001111 percent for each month of creditable service”, but not for the months before age 57. At 30 years of service (360 months) that subtraction takes the rate to almost nothing, so a general member with 30 or more years loses nothing from 57 on and only the first two years, 55 to 57, carry the full 0.4% a month. “These are permanent reductions to annuities and continue to apply after your normal retirement age.” Computed from that rule, the factor for general members is:

Every cell in that table matches the booklet’s printed Age Reduction Factors chart, and so do all 286 cells of the 26 service rows. Protective members have a simpler rule: “The annuities of protective category employees are reduced 0.4% per month for each month of age below normal retirement age.” Worked example, calculated for a protective member covered by Social Security with 25 years of service after 1999 and $5,000.00 final average monthly earnings: at 54 there is no reduction and the formula gives 25 x 2.0% x $5,000.00 = $2,500.00 a month (computed); at 50, 36 months before the normal age of 53, the factor is 0.856 and the benefit is $2,140.00 a month (computed).

Monthly formula benefit by service and age

Calculated for a general member with $4,000.00 final average monthly earnings and all service after 1999, the formula benefit looks like this. Thirty years of service after 1999 at 1.6% a year is 48% of final average earnings before any reduction.

The comparison that matters most is the one a year or two before 65. Computed for 20 years of service after 1999 and $4,000.00 earnings, retiring at 62 uses a 0.952 factor and gives $1,218.56 a month (computed), against $1,280.00 a month (computed) at 65. Waiting also adds service, which raises the benefit again.

The maximum benefit

The formula benefit is capped as a share of final average earnings. “If you were actively employed after 1999, your maximum monthly formula benefit is 70% of your final average earnings.” For protective members the same booklet page gives 65% for those covered by Social Security and 85% for those who are not. The statute sets the same 70, 65 and 85 percent in section 40.23(2m)(b). The cap rarely binds for a general member, who would need more than 43 years at 1.6% a year to reach 70%, and the calculator tells you when it does. For a general member with no service after 1999 the page uses 65%, the booklet’s figure for a member not employed after 1999.

The money purchase benefit

The second method turns your account into an annuity. The balance is on the Statement of Benefits, and the factor depends on your age when the annuity begins. The booklet prints the factors in Table 2, and an excerpt shows how steeply they rise with age:

Computed for a general member at 62 with 25 years after 1999 and $3,000.00 earnings, the formula gives $1,171.20 a month (computed), while a $150,000 balance gives $150,000 x .00602 = $903.00 a month (computed), so the formula pays. A member with only 8 years after 1999 and a $250,000 balance is the other case: the formula gives $343.30 a month (computed) and the balance gives $1,505.00 a month (computed), so money purchase pays. The calculator needs the balance you expect on the day the benefit begins. The booklet shows how to grow today’s balance with a compound interest table at assumed rates, and the Core fund rate that is actually credited each year changes the answer. The booklet prints the factor for whole ages only, so with months past a birthday this page shows the range between the two neighbouring ages.

Choices the benefit calculation does not make

1. Which payment option. The amounts here are the single life amount. “Joint and Survivor Annuity, 75% Continued to Named Survivor” and the other options reduce it by a conversion factor, which the booklet prints by age; the trade is covered on the single life versus joint and survivor page, and a younger spouse changes it as on the younger spouse page.

2. Whether to take a refund instead. A member who leaves can take a separation benefit rather than a lifetime annuity, which is the decision on the pension refund page.

3. When to retire, and what to do around Social Security. Each month before 65 costs permanent reduction for a general member with under 30 years, and the booklet describes accelerated payments that front-load the annuity until 62. COLA, vesting and buyback facts are on the Wisconsin WRS decisions page, the Social Security side for teachers is on the teacher pension and Social Security page, and Wisconsin’s tax treatment of the benefit is on the Wisconsin pension tax page.

Where this calculator stops, and how it was checked

It prices the single life retirement annuity for one employment category at a time. It does not price elected officials, state executive plan employees or judges, who have a third multiplier tier and a different normal retirement age; a member with service in more than one category, whose reduction the booklet says is calculated separately; the Variable Trust Fund adjustment; additional contributions; payment option factors; accelerated payments; a divided account after a divorce; benefits above the IRS limits; or a disability benefit. “It does not use information from your account.” Your own facts decide the outcome. Members first covered after June 30, 2011 need five years of service to be vested, and the page assumes you are vested; service below 5 years returns no figure. The Wisconsin Retirement System is also written WRS, as is the Wyoming Retirement System, which has its own rules on the Wyoming WRS page.

How it was checked: the formula was run against every cell of the booklet’s age reduction chart for general members (286 cells), the protective chart (10 cells) and Table 2 (31 factors), and against the booklet’s printed sample worksheet, which prints $210.04, $761.60 and a $971.64 total. Against a second program built to read those printed charts it agreed on 60,000 random combinations of category, age, service and pay. ETF’s own online calculator could not be driven: it sits behind a bot-verification check, so no comparison with it is claimed.

Common mistakes

• Entering a yearly salary where final average monthly earnings belongs. The formula uses the average of your three highest years, divided by 12.
• Using your last salary. The three years need not be consecutive or the last ones.
• Reading only the formula amount. WRS pays the higher of the formula benefit and the money purchase benefit.
• Assuming the age reduction ends at 65. It is permanent for life.
• Using the pre-2000 and post-1999 multipliers for all service. They differ, and the calculator takes the two separately.

Related: Wisconsin WRS decisions, public pension decisions by system, single life versus joint and survivor, pension refund versus leaving it in, and Wisconsin pension taxes.

Sources

• Wisconsin Statutes section 40.23 (WRS retirement benefits): https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/40/ii/23
• Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, Calculating Your Retirement Benefits (ET-4107, rev. 3/5/2025): https://etf.wi.gov/publications/et4107/download (section page)
• Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, WRS Retirement Benefits Calculator (page): https://etf.wi.gov/retirement/calculators/wrs-retirement-benefits-calculator
• Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, How the WRS Retirement Benefit Works: https://etf.wi.gov/retirement/wrs-retirement-benefit/how-wrs-retirement-benefit-works

Read from the Wisconsin Statutes and the ETF pages linked above on October 4, 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice, and not an ETF estimate. Your own facts decide the outcome, and ETF, your employer or a benefits advisor is the right place to confirm anything consequential.