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A Florida firm built to do fewer things, more carefully, and the founder who built it.
You shouldn’t have to translate your own pension just to get good advice.
Independent, fee-only, and built for Florida’s public employees.
Meet DerrickFRS Planning
Understand the decisions that shape your Florida Retirement System benefit.
Understanding DROP
Pension vs. Investment Plan · Guide. The FRS Income Gap Calculator · Tool.
Open the guidesWhat We Help With
The pieces that sit alongside your FRS benefit, and the timing decisions that come with them.
Leaving DROP: the decisions with a deadline.
Your DROP exit is a one-time decision. Make it with a plan, not a guess.
Read the DROP guideWho We Serve
Built for the people who built Florida: teachers, first responders, officers, state and county staff, and the retirees who already served.
FRS membership has more nuance than most people realize.
A short conversation usually clarifies what applies to you.
Start a ConversationGuides, webinars, checklists, and tools in plain English. Education first, no sales pitch.
Estimate your FRS retirement income in three short steps.
Pension, DROP, the Health Insurance Subsidy, and Social Security. No Social Security number, no FRS login.
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Your benefit uses your highest 5 fiscal years of compensation if you enrolled before July 2011, your highest 8 if on or after. If you are within that window, the years being averaged are the ones you are working now.
That is not a reason to do anything dramatic. It is a reason to know which years are counting and what counts as compensation in them.
| Decision | When it lands |
|---|---|
| Second election | Any time, but once, and DROP entry ends it |
| DROP entry and date | At normal retirement, any time after |
| Payout option 1–4 | At DROP entry if you enter DROP, otherwise at retirement |
| Beneficiary designation | Same form, and it must match |
| Bridge health coverage | Before your termination date |
The survivor option is chosen on the DROP application, at entry. Not eight years later.
Confirm your service record. Vesting status, class by position, and whether every year is credited where you think it is. Errors are easier to fix while you are still working.
Calculate your COLA. 3% times the share of service earned before July 2011. If the answer is zero, that is worth knowing eight years out rather than eight weeks out.
Put a number on the gap years between retirement and Medicare. And check whether the coverage you are planning to use lets you delay Part B. Most retiree coverage does not. See Medicare.
Find out which accounts you can actually reach before 59½. A 457(b) and a 403(b) behave differently.
This page is educational and is not individualized advice. Benowitz Wealth Management is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Florida Retirement System, the Florida Division of Retirement, or the State Board of Administration of Florida. Confirm the figures that apply to your own record at MyFRS.com or with the Division of Retirement.
Five to ten years out is when the choices start to carry dates. A first conversation costs nothing.
Independent, fee-only retirement planning for Florida’s public employees, built around your FRS benefit and everything you’ve built on the side.
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