NC TSERS Retirement Application Process: ORBIT Steps and Form 6 Guide

The TSERS retirement application has a hard start window and a form sequence that involves three parties — you, your employer's HR office, and the Retirement Systems Division. Missing a handoff means your first payment slips by a month. Here's the sequence from beginning to end.

When You Can Apply

You cannot submit a retirement application earlier than 120 days before your effective retirement date. The effective date must be the first day of a calendar month. If you want to retire on July 1, your application window opens on March 3.

Your last day of active employment with all TSERS-covered employers must fall before your effective retirement date. You can't retire and still be on payroll.

Step 1: Log into ORBIT and Submit Form 6

The application goes through ORBIT — the Online Retirement Benefits Information Technology portal at orbit.myncretirement.gov. You'll authenticate through ID.me (the legacy login credentials no longer work).

Form 6 ("Claiming Your Monthly Retirement Benefit") is the primary application. You can file it electronically through ORBIT or submit the paper version. The electronic filing is faster and avoids postal delays.

When you submit Form 6, you're providing:

• Your chosen effective retirement date
• Proof of birth (driver's license, birth certificate, or passport) for yourself
• Proof of birth for any potential monthly survivor beneficiary
• Your signature

At this point, notify your employer's Human Resources and Payroll department that you've filed. They have a separate step to complete, and giving them advance notice keeps the process on track.

Step 2: Employer Certification (Forms 641/6C)

After you submit Form 6, your employer completes their portion:

• Public school employees — the employer files Form 641 (Public School Unit Certification)
• State agency employees — the employer files Form 6C (Reporting an Employee's Work Record for Retirement)

Both forms certify your final monthly salary, unused sick leave balance, and terminal leave payouts. This information feeds directly into your benefit calculation — if sick leave is reported incorrectly, your service credit total is wrong, and your check is wrong.

The employer certification typically happens 90 to 60 days before your effective date. You can track whether it's been submitted through ORBIT, but you can't submit it yourself. If your HR department is slow, follow up — a missing certification holds up your estimate.

Step 3: Retiree Health Coverage Enrollment

While waiting for the employer certification, initiate your retiree health plan enrollment through the State Health Plan's eBenefits portal at shpnc.org. You have 30 days before or 30 days after your retirement date to enroll.

If you'll be 65 or older at retirement, confirm that you're enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B through the Social Security Administration before making your State Health Plan selection. Medicare-eligible retirees move into the Humana Group Medicare Advantage plans.

Step 4: The Estimate and Form 6E

Once RSD processes your application and employer certification, they generate an official estimate packet. This packet shows your projected monthly benefit under each of the six payment options, using your verified salary, service credit, and sick leave.

Along with the estimate, you receive Form 6E ("Choosing Your Retirement Payment Option"). This is the binding election. You'll select your payment option, designate a monthly survivor beneficiary if choosing a joint-and-survivor option, and have the form notarized.

You also complete:

• Form 170 — Direct Deposit Authorization
• Form 290 — Federal and State Tax Withholding Preferences
• Form 333/333BEN — Contributory Death Benefit Election (optional $10,000 retiree death benefit)

The 10th-of-the-Month Deadline

If RSD receives your completed Form 6E by the 10th day of your retirement month, your first pension payment is issued on the 25th of that same month. If Form 6E is processed after the 25th, payment is issued within one week of processing, with retroactive pay back to your effective date.

This deadline is why the sequence matters. If your employer's certification is late, RSD can't generate your estimate. If the estimate is late, you can't file Form 6E. Each delay cascades forward.

After You File: What's Irreversible and What Isn't

Before the first check issues (on the 25th if RSD receives completed Form 6E by the 10th), you can modify your payment option or cancel the entire retirement application in writing. Once the first check issues, the election is legally permanent. The only exception: a retiree under Option 2, 3, 6-2, or 6-3 who remarries may be able to substitute a new spouse as beneficiary under specific statutory conditions.

Keeping the Sequence Straight

The application itself isn't complicated — the forms are standard — but the coordination between you, your employer, and RSD creates multiple points where timing slips. The NC TSERS Retirement Guide includes a detailed timeline that maps every form, every handoff, and every deadline to a countdown calendar, so you know exactly who needs to do what by when.

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