Your Public Employee Retirement Association of New Mexico (PERA) Benefits & Career: Financial Planning for Members

Are you a member of the Public Employee Retirement Association of New Mexico (PERA)? Get the resources you need and expert insights from financial professionals who specialize in helping PERA members make the most of their compensation package and benefits.

Whether you’re a new PERA member or you’ve grown in your role covered by PERA benefits over a multi-year career, it’s important to make smart money moves with your income and member benefits. For example:

✅ Do you know the right moves to make to get the greatest value from the PERA benefits available to you?

✅If you’re planning to retire or thinking about leaving your career with PERA benefits for a private sector job, are you taking the right steps today to ensure you will receive all of the compensation and benefits that you’ve earned?

Get the Most Value from Your New Mexico PERA Benefits and Compensation Package

Throughout the year, PERA provides its members with updates about their benefits ranging from health insurance and health savings plans to retirement plans like a 401(a) and deferred compensation plans. While PERA offers many useful resources and access to knowledgeable staff who can assist with questions, you’ll also find financial professionals not affiliated with PERA who specialize in helping PERA members make the most of their income and benefits.

💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial advisors who work with PERA members to help them make smart decisions to get the most value from their compensation and benefits, reduce their money stress, and prepare for a comfortable retirement.

🙋‍♀️ Do you have questions not yet answered? Use the form below to submit questions anonymously and watch this article for updates with answers to your questions. You can also reach out to the financial advisors below to set up an introductory call or contact them with your questions by email.

💸 Smart Money Insights for New Mexico PERA Members

This page is organized into sections to help you quickly find the information you need and get answers to your questions:

1. Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for PERA Members
2. Get Answers to Your Questions About Your PERA Benefits and Career
3. Browse Related Articles

Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for New Mexico PERA Members

Answers to New Mexico PERA Member Questions with Peter Bo Rappmund, EA, CFP®

Peter Bo Rappmund is a financial advisor based in Santa Fe, New Mexico who specializes in offering financial planning services to New Mexico PERA members. Peter helps his clients get the most value from their PERA benefits and compensation package so they can enjoy life and feel confident about their financial future.

Q: As a financial advisor with experience helping New Mexico PERA members save for their retirement, how do you help them make the most of their benefits?

Peter: When I meet with a New Mexico PERA member, my goal is to help them see their benefits as part of a larger system instead of a mishmash of disconnected pieces. The cornerstone is the PERA defined benefit pension, a 401(a), which is a huge asset most private-sector employees don’t have access to.

I like to get clear on the specifics. We consider the coverage plan, tier, projected pension benefit, and then compare that to the income a client will need in retirement. The gap is usually where SmartSave, New Mexico’s 457(b) deferred compensation plan, comes in. Many members underutilize it, either assuming the pension alone will be sufficient or finding the plan intimidating to navigate. I help think through how much to contribute, the right mix of pre-tax and after-tax (Roth), and how those choices can coordinate with their broader tax picture.

From there we round out the plan. This entails potential service credit purchases that can boost a pension benefit when timed correctly, NMRHCA retiree health care, survivor election decisions (beneficiaries), and how Social Security fits in or, for some PERA roles, how the absence of it shapes the income strategy. We’re not necessarily maximizing a number on a benefits estimate but rather trying to build a safe and sound plan that lets you retire on your terms, with confidence and on the sustainability of your income.

Q: When you first speak with a PERA member, what questions do you like to ask to better understand their unique circumstances and determine how you can best help them achieve their goals?

Peter: Any PERA member’s situation will be unique enough that a generic intake doesn’t serve them well, so my initial conversation is about gathering the inputs that drive everything else. The first questions are almost always: when were you first hired into PERA-covered employment, and which coverage plan are you in? Or even simpler, do you know how to login to RIO (the online PERA system)? From there we can quickly determine your tier, your contribution rate, your benefit multiplier, and your earliest retirement eligibility. Without those, the advice I’d give would be unreliable.

I also want to know what retirement looks like to them, what they are imagining, and roughly when they want to actually retire, best-case scenario. I look into whether they’ve ever taken a refund, or served in the military (each of which may open the door to a service credit purchase); and how they’re using SmartSave, including the mix of pre-tax and Roth. I also ask about their household and gather information on their spouse or partner, dependents, and the rest of the financial picture. Survivor election decisions can be among the most consequential choices a PERA member makes.

Finally, I want to understand what exists outside of PERA, be it IRAs, prior employer plans, a spouse’s retirement, NMRHCA eligibility, and life and disability coverage. PERA is the anchor, but it’s rarely the whole picture, and the early conversations become less about gathering data than about understanding the person behind it.

Q: Is there a particular benefit available to PERA members you feel isn’t as well utilized or understood by members as it should be?

Peter: I’d point right back to SmartSave (deferred comp), which I touched on earlier. It’s New Mexico’s 457(b) deferred compensation plan, and while most PERA members know it exists, few use it to its full potential. One thing members often don’t realize is the flexibility built into the contribution side. You can save pre-tax (lowering current taxable income), or after-tax (Roth), or mix the two together. For participants whose tax bracket in retirement is likely to look different than it does today, which is most people, that flexibility can make a huge difference.

A second underused feature is the special pre-retirement catch-up. In addition to the standard catch-up available starting at age 50, governmental 457(b) plans like SmartSave allow eligible members to contribute up to double the regular annual limit during the three years before normal retirement age, provided they didn’t fully use their contribution room in earlier years. For someone in the home stretch of their career who’s behind on retirement savings, or who’s recently come into extra cash flow, this is something easy to take advantage of.

Next is access. SmartSave permits plan loans and, in qualifying circumstances, unforeseeable emergency withdrawals, which gives members reassurance that the money they defer isn’t completely locked away. Another one of the underappreciated advantages of a 457(b) is that once a participant separates from service, distributions are not subject to the 10% early withdrawal penalty that applies to most 401(k)’s and 403(b)’s, regardless of age. That distinction matters a great deal for members planning to retire before 59½.

Q: Beyond PERA member benefits for retirement savings, are there other types of benefits offered by the company that you find valuable to discuss with your clients?

Peter: I almost always have a conversation around health care through New Mexico Retiree Health Care Authority. We’ll talk about eligibility rules, premium subsidies, and how that coverage bridges to Medicare. For many, NMRHCA is one of the most valuable pieces of their public-employee compensation package outside of the pension itself.

Beyond that, I usually have questions on insurance, any additional health savings, and whether long-term care coverage is on their radar. Nothing flashy, but they’re the kind of decisions that quietly shape financial security in retirement.

Q: For PERA members thinking about leaving the company to accept a job elsewhere, what actions do you recommend they take before resigning and shortly thereafter?

Peter: Leaving a PERA-covered job is a major financial decision that deserves more thought than it usually gets. For some, it is similar to leaving a tenured position. Before resigning, it is usually a good idea to maximize what you can put into the system on the way out. For example, deferring as much cash flow allows into the 457(b), especially if you’re in the catch-up window, and confirm what you’ll receive for your final paycheck, sick leave payout, and any annual leave cash-out.

If you aren’t vested, the biggest decision is what to do with your PERA contributions, and in most cases my recommendation is to leave them on deposit with the state. Many New Mexicans who leave one PERA-covered position end up returning to another public sector role in New Mexico, and leaving your contributions with PERA preserves your service credit so you can pick up right where you left off. Taking a refund forfeits the future pension benefit you’ve earned, it basically cashes in on time worked, and if you do return to a PERA-covered job later, the cost to buy that service back can be substantial. A refund can still make sense in some situations, particularly if you’re confident you won’t return to public sector work and have an urgent need for cash, but I want any member to fully understand what they’d be giving up before going that route.

Deferred comp balances can stay in the plan, roll to an IRA, or move to a new employer plan, each with different trade-offs and rules to follow. Update your beneficiary designations after the transition and make sure your new employer’s benefits are configured before separation to avoid a coverage gap.

Q: For PERA members approaching retirement age, how do you recommend they prepare to make the transition from living off their salary to relying upon other sources of income?

Peter: A lot of my clients are surprised when I show them how much money they are spending to work. Also, planning on how money may shift to unforeseen health care costs, or vacation spending in retirement. I’ve even worked with a couple who went on a semi-permanent cruise once they left their state job.

The first step though is requesting a formal benefit estimate from PERA. From there, build a realistic retirement budget and compare it to your projected pension, SmartSave balance, Social Security (if applicable), and any outside savings. The work then shifts to sequencing and timing of withdrawals across those accounts to keep your tax bill manageable in retirement. Before you separate, look at moves like service credit purchases or maximizing SmartSave contributions through things such as vacation/sick-leave payouts.

Q: For PERA members who have managed their finances on their own to this point, what would you suggest they consider to help them decide if they should begin working with a financial advisor at this stage in their lives?

Peter: Honestly, doing it yourself for a long time is something to be proud of- many people don’t. A good question to ask is whether the next phase of your life involves decisions that are bigger and more complicated than what you’ve handled before. For New Mexico PERA members, that moment usually arrives somewhere within ten years of retirement, when the choices on the table start to look very different. Survivor benefit decisions, service credit purchase windows, and the order in which you draw down your accounts in retirement are all decisions you generally make once, and the cost of getting them wrong is high.

I’d also think about the tax planning side. If you’re juggling a PERA pension, SmartSave (with both pre-tax and Roth balances), Social Security, IRAs, and possibly a spouse’s accounts, the question stops being “am I saving enough?” and becomes “in what order, and at what rate, do I draw these down to keep my lifetime tax bill as low as possible?” That’s a different kind of math, and a planner who knows your situation can be invaluable.

You also need to know how you actually want to spend your time and energy. Some people enjoy reading retirement research, playing with investing and running their own models, and that’s terrific. But many of my clients tell me the real value of working with an advisor isn’t just the technical work. It’s the freedom to stop carrying the weight of every financial decision themselves, and the confidence that comes from having a second set of trained eyes on a plan they’ve worked their whole career to fund.

Q: What are some of the unique financial planning challenges you commonly see among your clients who are PERA members and how do you help them overcome these obstacles?

Peter: The challenges I see most often come back to complexity and irreversibility. PERA’s tier rules vary enough that two members in seemingly similar jobs can have meaningfully different benefit structures. Add deferred comp, Social Security, and any outside accounts to the picture, and the planning lift is suddenly very real. My job is to slow those decisions down, lay out the trade-offs in plain language, and make sure each move fits a coherent long-term plan rather than getting decided in isolation.

Q: What questions do you recommend PERA members ask financial advisors they’re considering hiring to help them decide if they’re a good fit?

Peter: Know whether the advisor operates as a fiduciary at all times. A fiduciary is legally and ethically bound to put your interests ahead of their own in every recommendation. Beyond that, look at credentials and specialty. Ask whether the advisor has hands-on experience with PERA members specifically, since the system has its own vocabulary and quirks. Finally, confirm how they’re paid. Fee-only advisors charge solely for advice and don’t earn product commissions.

Q: Is there anything that comes up frequently in your initial meeting with PERA members that surprises you?

Peter: I feel lucky I get to work with such thoughtful and values-driven government employees out here in New Mexico. People who choose public service generally aren’t doing it solely for the money, and that same long-view, mission-oriented mindset shows up in how they approach their lives. They tend to be disciplined savers, and genuinely focused on making good decisions for their families and communities. It makes the work feel less like advising and more like collaborating with people who already know what matters most.

Q: For highly compensated PERA members and executives, are there any special benefits you believe it’s important to take into consideration when preparing their financial plan?

Peter: This is another case where we’ll make sure the employee is making full use of SmartSave. The governmental 457(b) is a powerful tool for high earners because it doesn’t have the highly compensated employee testing that limits private-sector 401(k) deferrals, so executives can typically max it out without restriction. The 3-year pre-retirement catch-up is especially valuable here, since it can effectively double the contribution limit during the final years of a career, a window when income tends to peak and the tax benefit of deferral is at its highest. From there, we get into tax-bracket management around the gap between salary income, pension start, and Social Security claiming, which is often where the biggest planning wins live for this group. As a CFP® and an Enrolled Agent (EA), that kind of multi-year tax work is where I tend to spend the most time with clients in this position.

Q: Is there a particularly memorable experience or a moment you recall with a client who worked at PERA when you realized they have unique opportunities and circumstances when it comes to their financial planning needs?

Peter: Prior to starting my own firm, I spent years working exclusively with PERA members and traveling all over the state to meet with New Mexico’s public sector employees. I have too many stories at this point to pick just one, but something that always resonated with me was getting to help people cross the finish line into retirement and then catching up with them on the other side. Public sector employees tend to retire younger than their private-sector counterparts, and more often than not I’d see them taking on a whole new career or life post-government. And I’d see how what we had worked on together was going to help not only them, but their future generations as well.

There’s also a part of myself outside finance that shapes how I approach everything in general. As a working artist, I’ve spent years learning to notice what others miss and to make something coherent out of pieces that don’t always seem to belong together. Planning, at its best, asks for this same instinct.

Get to Know Peter Bo Rappmund, Financial Advisor for New Mexico PERA Members:

Counterpoint Peter Bo Rappmund, EA, CFP®

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Serving Clients Nationwide

Clarity and alignment | Fiduciary financial advisor

Areas of Focus

Financial Life Planning Investment Management Money Psychology Retirement Planning Taxes

View Peter’s profile page on Wealthtender or visit his website to learn more.

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