Optional Retirement Plan (ORP)

The Optional Retirement Plan was established in recognition of the fact that many university level faculty members transfer from state to state a number of times prior to retirement and that such mobility in employment severely limits the ability to build a meaningful retirement benefit under a defined benefit plan such as the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi. This alternative plan is structured so as to be portable and transferable as teaching and administrative staff move from one state to another.

The ORP is a defined contribution plan with one of three approved companies:

• Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association/College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA/CREF)

• ING Life Insurance and Annuity Company, and

• Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (VALIC)