Filing for Retirement With the Police Pension Fund
The steps and the timeline, from the Fund’s own instructions (Tier 2 service)

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Before you fill anything out

The Fund’s instruction sheet suggests three things before you complete the forms.

1. A current pension statement. You request it on Form 70, the Pension Statement Request. Uploaded through webCOPS it needs no notary and is usually posted within about a day; mailed, it has to be notarized. Our pension statement guide walks through it.
2. Your leave balance, from your timekeeper. It answers the sheet’s question: “Do I need to use Terminal Leave (or other leave) to get me to my retirement date?”
3. Advice. The sheet suggests talking to a financial advisor, a tax professional or your union, “Because you will need to make some very important decisions before we process your retirement.”

Step 1: two forms, emailed as one PDF

The My Retirement Preferences Form tells the Fund about you and asks three things: “Your retirement date”, “Your decision on using Terminal Leave” and “Your decision on taking a Final Withdrawal”. The sheet says you can fill it out on a computer and type your name on the signature line.

The Property Receipt / Discontinuance of Service Form confirms your intent to file. “Please fill in only the top section with your information,” then have it signed by a supervisor at your command who is at least one rank above you, in the Signature of Commanding Officer box, as Administrative Guide Procedure 329-06 requires. The rest of the form comes later, when you turn in your property.

Scan both into one PDF (the sheet says “We can’t accept photos or other types of files”) and email it to retirement@nycppf.org.

Two of those answers deserve time before you send them. How you take terminal leave can move your retirement date past December 1, which moves the banked VSF a year (Terminal Leave and the December 1 VSF Cutoff). And the final withdrawal reduces your pension for life (NYPD Final Withdrawal: Leave It, Take the Excess, or Take All). Our video on the six numbers to get first covers what to ask the Fund before you decide.

Step 2: the appointment, and the 30 days

The Fund checks your forms, asks for anything missing, and then contacts you to set up the appointment. The sheet says “Most appointments are still by phone. But we also have a limited number of in-person slots.”

The notice rule is short: “You must give 30 days’ notice before retiring. This applies regardless of how many years you have on the job. We start counting the 30 days on the day of your appointment.” So the 30 days run from the appointment, not from the day you email your forms.

The June 2026 Tier 2 booklet describes filing the older way: call the Retirement Processing Unit three to four weeks before filing, and file “in person at least ten days prior to the start of terminal leave and at least 30 days prior to the retirement date” (p.14). The sheet says the process changed because of COVID-19 and is temporarily different from the Patrol Guide. An appointment at least 30 days before your retirement date and at least ten days before your terminal leave starts meets both as written. Confirm your own dates with the Fund.

At processing, the Fund gives you information on health insurance, survivor options, employment restrictions and withholding, and “The member’s retirement date will be set, and estimates for both final pension and pre-finalization pension will be provided” (p.16). The estimate is only that: overtime, night differential and worked vacation earned before your actual retirement date are added when your pension is finalized (p.16). Until the City’s Chief Actuary certifies it, a new Tier 2 retiree is paid about 95% of the estimated final pension (p.25; see pension finalization).

Step 3: the papers the Fund emails you

The Fund then sends a package with a checklist, “Checklist for Completing Your Retirement Papers (Service, Tier 2).” It marks what to do with each document: review it, fill it out, sign it, and scan and email it back. Among them:

• Pension Estimate and the Pension Application (PD 440-045): review and sign.
• Finalization / Option Request, Over 20: review and sign. Your pension option is where you choose a benefit for a survivor. Both booklets give you 30 days from when you’re told the option costs, or “the maximum retirement allowance will be granted,” and under the Maximum the pension stops when you die, with no pension paid to a survivor. In Tier 2 the Fund sends three notices before it finalizes at the Maximum (p.25). See survivor options.
• Final Withdrawal: Distribution Election and Final Withdrawal: Default Mailing Address: fill out and sign.
• Banked Variable Supplement: Election Form Deadline, Rollover Election for Banked Variable and Suspend Variable Supplement: fill out and sign. For the rollover election the checklist says “See cover email” on how to send it back.
• W-4P withholding, direct deposit (EFT), the MCU deduction, health benefits, Direct Deposit While on Terminal Leave, Audit of Leave Balances and Time Audit and Retirement Date Changes: review and sign.

You also supply a blank check with VOID written on it, a page of a bank statement showing your account and routing numbers, your Medicare cards and any Domestic Partnership Certification, plus your pistol permit (if you’re a city resident), HR218 and Good Guy Letter from 1PP. The checklist says to send the Property Receipt back right after you return your property.

Loans, buybacks, shortages and the money outside the Fund

You don’t need to settle these before the appointment. The sheet says only that “we won’t be able to give you an accurate estimate of your monthly benefit,” and that if you plan to complete one of these transactions, “you must do that before you retire.” A loan from your Deferred Comp 457 is separate, and it comes due when you leave City service (Retiring With a 457 Loan).

Your union annuity fund isn’t part of the Pension Fund’s papers either. The Fund’s retirement information booklet sends annuity questions to your union; the choices each fund offers are in Your NYPD Union Annuity Fund at Retirement.

If you change your mind

Before the appointment, you can cancel it. During or after the appointment, the sheet says “you must come in person by 1000 hours and withdraw your application.” The booklet says a pending application can be withdrawn by appearing in person “at least one business day prior to the scheduled retirement date” (p.16).

Withdrawing has costs. Terminal or annual leave used before you withdraw “may not be restored,” though unused terminal leave can count toward a future retirement, and you must work 30 days after withdrawing to be eligible for annual leave the next calendar year (p.16). Refiling means new forms and a new 30-day notice period. If you refile less than six months after withdrawing, the Fund processes it by email, with no second appointment.

The timeline, start to finish

A note for Tier 3

This post follows the Fund’s Tier 2 service instructions. The Tier 3 booklet says “there is no statutory minimum time period by which the member must file before retiring,” recommends calling Retirement Processing three to four weeks ahead, and says filing “should be done in person at least 10 days prior to the start of terminal leave” (Tier 3 booklet, June 2026, p.11). Ask the Fund for the Tier 3 instructions.

Common questions

When does the NYPD 30-day retirement notice start?

On the day of your appointment with the Police Pension Fund, according to the Fund’s instruction sheet.

Can I file for retirement by email?

You start by email: the two forms go to retirement@nycppf.org as one PDF. The appointment follows, and most are by phone.

Who signs the Property Receipt / Discontinuance of Service Form?

A supervisor at your command who is at least one rank above you, in the Signature of Commanding Officer box. At this stage you fill in only the top section.

Can I withdraw my retirement application?

Yes, while it’s pending, in person. Leave you’ve already used may not be restored, and refiling starts a new 30-day notice.

Retiring from the FDNY? Firefighters are in a separate pension fund. Run the FDNY pension calculator or get the free FDNY Pension Book.

Working with us: Sirmium Capital works with NYPD members and retirees. What we do, how the firm is paid and how to start.