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401 Introduction

After establishing a PIN/Password account, employees who have not yet retired 

under the Railroad Retirement Act may access Retirement Planner by selecting 

Estimate My Annuity from the Mainline Services Menu page. The employee 

may obtain any of the following:

1) An employee annuity estimate based on service and earnings currently on 

record with the Railroad Retirement Board. The Tier 1 and Tier 2 amounts 

will be provided for the earliest full annuity date and, if applicable, the earliest 

reduced annuity rate.

2) If requested, a spouse annuity estimate based on the spouse’s date of birth 

and the employee’s age, years of service, and eligibility dates.

3) A print summary of service months, railroad compensation, and Social 

Security wages, and print output of employee and spouses estimates as 

described in 1).

4) An employee estimate based on additional service months, railroad 

compensation, or Social Security wages entered by the employee.

5) If requested, a spouse annuity estimate based on the projected employee 

service and earnings.

6) An employee estimate as described above based on two additional annuity 

beginning dates selected by the employee.

7) If required, a spouse annuity estimate based on the additional employee 

annuity beginning dates.

405 Screen Description and Processing

Select Estimate My Annuity:

405.1 PIN/Password

At the PIN/Password (PPW) Acknowledgement screen, click OK to continue.

405.2 Retirement Planner Screen

At the Retirement Planner initial screen (see below), users will have the option 

to enter a corrected date of birth. 
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Corrected DOB If the day of birth is not shown in the Railroad Retirement Board 

record, Retirement Planner will display the day date as “15.” The user may 

correct the DOB by entering MM DD YY in a drop down field. Note: The 

corrected DOB is used for the estimate calculation only; the user should contact 

their servicing Field Office to correct the year we have on record.

Spouse DOB – The user would enter the MM DD YY in a drop down field for a 

spouse estimate. 

Click Continue
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405.3 Earnings Information

The screen displays the annual and cumulative totals of service months, railroad 

compensation, and SSA wages according to RRB records. If military service has 

been included in the RRB record, the screen will display the beginning and 

ending date of the period of military service, and, if the period of military service 

is creditable as railroad service, the number of service months derived from 

military service.

The terms “military service months, service months, Railroad compensation, and 

SSA wages” are defined by clicking an informational link on the screen. The 

definitions, and a message urging the pre-submission of proofs of age and 

military service, will also be included with the print output of the screen.

At the bottom of the screen, users will have three options:

1). Print – Print output of the screen.

2). Estimate – An estimate based on current service, compensation, and 

wages on record will be provided.

3). Earnings – Click to add additional service and earnings for future years 

for the estimate.
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405.4 Employee Estimate

Based on the employee’s Date of Birth and Years of Railroad Service, the 

eligibility date and estimated amount of a Reduced and Full Age and Service

annuity are shown (see below.)

The user may click the informational links – Annuity Beginning Date, Net Tier 1, 

or Net Tier 2 – for a more detailed explanation of the estimate.

Options:

Print – The Print output of the employee estimate screen is identified by the 

employee’s name and SSN. If the estimate is also based on additional service 

months, Railroad Compensation, or SSA wages entered by the user, those 

amounts and the year they begin are displayed. The estimate output also 

includes a standard paragraph advising: 

“The estimated amounts of future dates are calculated without considering 

any increase due to inflation. The purpose of the estimate is to furnish a 

starting reference point for planning your retirement future. If you need 

information concerning disability or survivor benefits, please visit those 

areas of our website or contact your nearest RRB office for information 

concerning events that may affect the amount of employee and spouse 

annuities.” 

405.5 Spouse

Click to view Spouse Estimate Screen. Note: This button only appears if a

spouse DOB was entered on the Initial Retirement Planner screen. 
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Based on the spouse date of birth and the employee’s age, years of service, and 

previously furnished eligibility dates, the eligibility date and estimated amount of 

a reduced, and, if applicable, full spouse annuity is shown. 

User options on the spouse estimate screen include:

Print – Print output of the Spouse Estimate Screen. This is in the same format 

as described for the print output of the employee estimate.

Employee – Returns to the Employee Estimate Screen.

Exit – Exits from the estimate program.

405.6 Earnings

If the user wants to add additional service or earnings for future years, click the 

Earnings button at the bottom of the Service and Compensation Statement. 

Enter the additional service months, Railroad Compensation, and Social Security 

Wages and then click Estimate.

Enter Estimated Earnings Screen:

The information entered will be used for each year from the indicated year on 

the screen (see above) through the year before the annuity beginning date. The 

indicated year is the next year after the latest year, according to our records, that 

either Railroad Compensation or Social Security Wages were credited. For 

example, if the last year of service was 2002, the additional service and earnings 

would be from 2003. 
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The entries by the user are service months, Railroad Compensation, and SSA 

Wages. The number of service months (1-12) are entered by a drop-down box. 

Click on the box next to Railroad Compensation and the box next to SSA Wages 

to enter the respective amounts. The amounts should not be entered with a 

dollar sign or comma. 

The additional information will be the same for each individual year. For 

example, if the number of service months and the amount of railroad 

compensation are, respectively, “12” and “50000”, then the estimate will be 

based on the additional service and compensation (12 SM and 50000 in 

compensation) for each year from 2002 through the year before the annuity 

beginning date.

405.7 Estimates

When clicking this button, the Additional Estimates Screen appears (see 

below.)

The user may enter up to two additional Annuity Beginning Dates (ABD.) The 

dates must be later than the earliest ABD previously established by Retirement 

Planner. For example, the earliest ABD for an employee with less than 360 

service months and a DOB of 9/15/1951 is 10/1/2013. The screen would indicate 

that the dates must be later than 10/1/2013. 

The user may enter, via a drop-down box entry, the month and year of the two 

additional ABDs. The “Day” Date Field is pre-filled with 01.
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After the ABD entry, the user clicks the Continue button to view the Employee 

Estimate Screen with the new ABDs. If the user had previously entered 

additional service months, compensation, or wages, the estimate will be based 

on the additional information through the year before the additional ABDs. Since 

spouse estimates are derived from the employee service and compensation 

record and ABD, changes in the employee data will affect the amount and ABD 

of the spouse estimate. The spouse estimate may be viewed by clicking the 

Spouse button.

410 Field Office Responsibilities/Functions

Retirement Planner provides a starting point for Railroad employees to plan for 

their retirement. Users of Retirement Planner are therefore urged to contact their 

servicing Field Office for more information concerning retirement Please handle 

these program related inquiries in the usual manner. If inquiries from users of 

Retirement Planner cannot be resolved, report the problem to Policy and 

Systems via the P&S Inquiry Mailbox. Identify the inquiry with Retirement 

Planner as the subject of the e-mail.