Retirement rules allow eligible judges to serve until age 74

Eligible members may retire while continuing to serve as a judge, solicitor, or circuit public defender until the end of the calendar year in which they turn 74. The rule covers judges, solicitors, and circuit public defenders who meet the system’s retirement requirements, including the required service and benefit qualifications. Members who continue working must keep making employee and employer retirement contributions. Those contributions do not earn additional service credit. Members retiring before age 60 have their normal monthly benefit deferred until age 60, without interest on that deferred benefit. A member continuing to serve is treated as retired for purposes other than employment. The act takes effect upon the Governor’s approval and applies to members who have not reached age 74 before January 1, 2027.

A judge may choose to remain active and continue earning service credit after turning 72 in 2026. The option applies to a judge who turns 72 in 2026, whose current seat has been screened, and whose successor has been elected. The judge must continue serving full time. The judge may not earn additional service credit after reaching 10 years of earned service in the system. This option applies to qualifying judges who reach age 72 in 2026 and begins under the act’s effective-date rule after the Governor’s approval.