Palm Beach County Fire Rescue
How to retire from Palm Beach County Fire Rescue
Not the strategy and not the math. This is the paperwork map. The part that surprises most members is that the office handling their health insurance is not a County office at all.
I went through this myself after almost twenty years at Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. The hardest part was never the decision. It was finding out who to call and in what order, because no single office hands you the whole picture.
Start here
Four different organizations control your retirement
Almost every mistake I have seen comes from one wrong assumption, which is that somebody is handling it. Several somebodies are handling pieces of it. They do not talk to each other on your behalf, and none of them will tell you what the others need.
1. Florida Division of Retirement, Tallahassee
Owns your pension. Your retirement application, your option election, your DROP, your service credit and the state Health Insurance Subsidy all live here.
844-377-1888 MyFRS Financial Guidance Line 866-446-93772. The Fire Fighters Employee Benefits Fund
Owns your health, dental and vision insurance into retirement. This is a trust fund, not a County department, and it is the call that has a deadline attached to it.
Rick Rhodes, Benefits Fund Administrator 561-969-6663 myffbenefits.com3. The Firefighters' Retirement Insurance Fund
A separate trust from the Benefits Fund. Pays you a monthly cash benefit toward health premiums and qualified medical expenses after you retire.
7240 7th Place N, West Palm Beach 561-209-2523 Anchor Benefit Consulting 800-845-76294. County HR, PBCFR payroll, your 457 and the local
County HR has a Retirement Coordinator who handles the FRS paperwork. PBCFR has no benefits department of its own, so leave balances and your final check come from department payroll.
County HR Retirement Coordinator 561-616-6884 PBCFR, 405 Pike Road, 561-616-7000 Nationwide 457 877-677-3678 IAFF Local 2928, 561-969-0729Write these four down before you do anything else. Every step below belongs to one of them.
Read this part first
Your retiree health insurance does not come from the County
This is the single most important structural fact for a Palm Beach County firefighter, and it is where people waste weeks. If you call County Risk Management about continuing your coverage, you are calling the wrong building.
Palm Beach County firefighters are covered through the Palm Beach County Fire Fighters Employee Benefits Fund, a self insured trust established in 1984 that provides medical, dental, vision and life coverage to active and retired members. The County and Local 2928 contract carries a separate article on retiree insurance for exactly this reason.
Call the Fund at least 30 days before your last day
The Fund's own retiree guidance is direct about it. Contact the Benefits Fund Administrator at least 30 days in advance of your last day. And the first eligibility requirement is absolute: you must already be a current enrollee in the Fund in order to continue your insurance in retirement. If you dropped Fund coverage at some point to save money, you cannot pick it back up on your way out the door.
Beyond being a current enrollee, you also need to meet one of several retirement conditions, which for most members means meeting the definition of retiree under Florida Statute 112.0801 or drawing an immediate FRS benefit. Members who kept a legacy pension through a merger rather than moving to FRS are addressed separately in the Fund's rules.
The Fund's published retiree benefits document carries no plan year on its face, and its current rate sheets and the retiree status change form live behind the member area. Get the current election form, the premium figures and the exact deadline directly from the Fund and keep the reply.
The money most members underuse
The Retirement Insurance Fund is a separate trust, and you have to claim it
The Palm Beach County Firefighters' Retirement Insurance Fund is a 501(c)(9) trust that held roughly $122.5 million in assets at the end of its 2024 fiscal year. It pays retired members a monthly cash benefit to put toward health insurance premiums and other qualified medical expenses. It is not your pension and it is not the state Health Insurance Subsidy. It is a third thing, and it is the one people leave on the table.
- Eligibility is ten year vesting with PBCFR, a current health insurance plan, and retirement with benefits from FRS, Lantana Fire or Lake Worth Fire, or retirement under the long term disability provisions of the contract.
- You do not have to carry Benefits Fund insurance to collect it. You do have to show proof of other health coverage.
- Payments are quarterly, and electronic direct deposit became available on October 1, 2026. Before that it was a benefit card or a check.
- There is an annual recertification. Every year you file a notarized affidavit of continued eligibility with a copy of your current insurance card, through the fund's third party administrator. Miss it and you are chasing your own money.
What the Fund does not publish, and what to ask
The Fund's board approved an increase of $300 per month for all retirees effective January 1, 2025, and approved a further increase of the same amount for 2026. What is not published anywhere public is the base benefit those increases were added to, because the plan documents sit behind a member login. So the honest answer to "what will I actually receive" is that you have to ask the Fund directly. Do that before you build the number into a retirement budget, not after.
Fund office at 7240 7th Place N, West Palm Beach, 561-209-2523. Annual affidavits go to the plan's administrator, Anchor Benefit Consulting, 800-845-7629.
Leave payout
I am not going to guess at your leave numbers
On the other department pages I can tell you exactly what the contract pays at separation. For Palm Beach County I cannot, and I would rather say so than publish a number that gets somebody's last year wrong.
Here is the situation. The agreement between Palm Beach County and Local 2928 runs from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2027, and it contains Article 28 on vacations and Article 41 on employee benefits. The copy the County publishes online is a truncated file. Its text ends partway through Article 21, so Articles 22 through 49 are simply not in the document the public can read. The union's own copy is not reachable by automated tools either.
What I can confirm from the readable portion is narrow and worth knowing anyway. Under Article 21, a member permanently separated from the County is compensated for unused compensatory time at the higher of the average rate earned over the last three years or the final regular rate, and compensatory accrual is capped at 130 hours. Under Article 12, members who are laid off are paid 100 percent of all accrued leave, which is a layoff provision and not a retirement provision.
Why the County Merit Rules are not your answer
The County's Merit System Rules do set a countywide baseline, including a sick leave payout of 10 percent after ten years of employment for employees hired on or after October 1, 1994, capped at 500 hours, with a more generous formula for longer tenured employees hired before that date. But a collective bargaining agreement supersedes the Merit Rules for employees in a bargaining unit. So those numbers may not be your numbers, and using them to plan would be a guess wearing a citation.
Get the current vacation and sick leave payout language from Local 2928 at 561-969-0729, and get your own hour balances and their dollar value from department payroll, in writing. Two phone calls, and then you actually know.
A small group this matters enormously to
If you came from Lantana or Lake Worth
A closed group of members who transferred in from the old Lantana and Lake Worth fire departments remained in those cities' local Chapter 175 plans rather than moving into FRS. If that is you, almost nothing on this page about forms and filing windows applies, because your retirement is governed by a city ordinance and a local board rather than by Chapter 121 and the Division of Retirement. The Retirement Insurance Fund does recognize Lantana and Lake Worth pensions for its own eligibility. Everything else you need to confirm with your board.
The paperwork
Every state form, by number
You are in FRS Special Risk, so your pension paperwork is identical to every other FRS firefighter in Florida. These are the actual Division of Retirement form numbers. If somebody hands you a packet, check it against this list, because packets go out of date and the wrong version of a form comes back to you with weeks already gone.
| Form | What it does | Who files it |
|---|---|---|
| FR-11 | Application for Service Retirement. This is the form that starts everything. | You |
| FRS-11o | Option Selection. Option 1, 2, 3 or 4. This is the survivor decision. | You |
| SA-1 | Spousal Acknowledgment. Your spouse signs that they know which option you picked. | You and your spouse |
| FST-12 | Beneficiary designation for retired members and DROP participants. A different form from the one you filed as an active member. | You |
| FC-1 | Final Salary Certification covering your last four months of salary. Your benefit cannot be finalized without it. | Your employer, not you |
| DP-11 | Application for Service Retirement and DROP. Replaces the FR-11 if you are entering DROP. | You |
| DP-ELE | Notice of Election to Participate in DROP and Resignation of Employment. You are signing a resignation. | You |
| DP-TERM | Verifies that you actually terminated on the date you put on the DP-ELE. Miss this and the retirement can be cancelled. | You and your employer |
| HIS-1 | Health Insurance Subsidy certification. The subsidy is not automatic and is not paid until you apply. | You, after you separate |
| FRS-TAR | Termination and reemployment acknowledgment. Read it before you accept any job offer. | You |
The FC-1 is the one most people never hear about, because your employer files it and not you. It covers your last four months of salary, and your benefit cannot be finalized until the Division has it. Ask whether it has been filed, and keep the answer.
Timing
The windows that cost people money
You cannot apply more than six months ahead
The earliest you can apply is six months before you terminate, and the Division generally wants the application about three months out. There is no credit for being extremely early.
Retirement is always effective the first day of a month
Your last day on the job does not set your retirement date. The paperwork does. If the Division receives your application before you terminate, or within 30 days after, your effective date is the first day of the month after you terminate. If it arrives more than 30 days after you terminate, your effective date becomes the first day of the month after they received it. That is how a firefighter loses a month of pension to a slow envelope.
The eighth of the month
For your first month's benefit to be paid on time, the Division wants everything in hand by the eighth day of the month that contains your effective retirement date. Later than that and the first payment comes retroactively on a following payroll. You still get the money. You just do not get it when you were counting on it.
Benefits are paid on the last working day of each month
Not the first, and not on the pay cycle you have lived on for twenty years.
The option election becomes permanent fast
Your choice on the FRS-11o locks the moment you cash or deposit a benefit payment, including a direct deposit you never touched, or the moment DROP participation begins. That is the survivor decision, and it is the one your spouse lives on if you go first. Model it in dollars with them in the room before you sign it.
If you are entering DROP
What changed in 2023, and what the forms require
A lot of what circulates in the stations about DROP is the old version of the rules. Under the 2023 changes, DROP participation can run up to 96 months, and accounts accrue at an effective annual rate of 4 percent, compounded monthly, for DROP beginning on or after July 1, 2023. Normal retirement for Special Risk is being vested at age 55, or 25 years of Special Risk service.
If you are holding a DROP handout that says 60 months or 1.3 percent, you are holding a document written before July 2023. Check the date on anything somebody gives you.
- File the DP-11 and the DP-ELE together, through the department, and understand that the DP-ELE is a resignation with a date on it.
- Get them in by the last working day of the month you intend to enroll. You can submit up to six months before your DROP begin date.
- Settle the leave question before you sign. Entering DROP changes what your leave payout can be.
- File the DP-TERM at the end. If you do not verify termination on the date you put on the DP-ELE, the retirement can be cancelled and the DROP balance put at risk.
Rates, maximums and eligibility come from the statute and can change again. Confirm your own numbers with the Division before you commit.
Before you take the check
Part of that leave payout can go into your 457(b) instead
Whatever your contract pays for accrued vacation and sick leave, it arrives as one check in one tax year, on top of a full year of salary and overtime. Some of it does not have to be taxed this year, and that is worth settling at the same time you go get your actual hour numbers from payroll.
A leave payout is wages, not plan money, so it is not a rollover. It has to be deferred before it is paid, and for a 457(b) the election has to be in place before the first day of the month the money is paid. If your payout lands in an August check, the form is due by July 31. That one deadline is where this falls apart for most people.
It is also capped. For 2026 the limit is $24,500, plus $8,000 at age 50 or older, or up to $49,000 total if you qualify for the special catch-up in the three years before normal retirement age. And deferring saves federal income tax, not Social Security and Medicare.
Before you take another job
The six month rule ends more second careers than people expect
After you retire you must have no employment with any FRS participating employer for six calendar months. Not reduced employment. None. That includes unpaid work, OPS or temporary work, and work performed for an FRS employer through a third party or a contractor. If you are a DROP participant, the clock starts the calendar month after your DROP termination.
Violate it and your retirement can be voided, and you and the employer can be required to repay every benefit received, including a DROP payout. After six months there is no restriction on working for an FRS employer, though you cannot rejoin FRS or earn new FRS benefits. Work for a private employer or a non FRS public employer does not affect your pension at all.
Florida has a lot of FRS employers, and the one offering you a job may be one of them without either of you realizing it. Call the Division at 844-377-1888 and confirm before you sign, not after you start.
The order of operations
If you are going straight out
- Six to twelve months out. Request a formal benefit estimate from the Division for more than one separation date. Pull your leave balances from payroll in writing. Price your retiree coverage.
- Three to six months out. File the FR-11, the FRS-11o and the SA-1. Choose the option with your spouse, in dollars, before this step and not during it.
- Same window. File the FST-12 so your beneficiary designation as a retiree is current. The one you filed as an active member does not carry over the way people assume.
- Confirm your employer filed the FC-1, by email, and keep the reply.
- Call the Benefits Fund at least 30 days before your last day and confirm your retiree election, your premium and the form they need.
- Apply to the Retirement Insurance Fund with proof of health coverage, and set up direct deposit. Then calendar the annual notarized affidavit so you never miss one.
- After you separate. File the HIS-1 for the Health Insurance Subsidy, which pays $7.50 per month for each year of service, with a minimum of $45 and a maximum of $225, and which is not paid until you apply and show proof of coverage.
- Then, and only then, deal with your 457. There is no deadline forcing you to move it, and a rushed decision here is expensive. Ask for the distribution options and the fees in writing.
If you are entering DROP
- Run the leave math and the DROP math together. They are one decision.
- File the DP-11, DP-ELE, FRS-11o and SA-1 by the last working day of the month you intend to enroll.
- Understand that your option election locks when DROP begins. Not at the end of DROP. At the beginning.
- At the end of DROP, file the DP-TERM and terminate on the date you specified. Then work the insurance and subsidy steps above.
Take this with you
The things only your employer can tell you
- What is my current enrollment status in the Benefits Fund, and what will my retiree premium be? From the Benefits Fund Administrator, in writing, at least 30 days before my last day.
- What is my actual monthly benefit from the Retirement Insurance Fund, including the 2025 and 2026 increases? From the Fund office. Do not budget a number nobody has confirmed.
- What does the current contract pay for accrued vacation and sick leave at retirement, and what are my balances worth in dollars? From Local 2928 and from department payroll.
- Has the Final Salary Certification been filed, and on what date? From County HR or department payroll, by email.
Ask by email, so the answer exists in writing rather than in your memory of a phone call. If an office will not put an answer in writing, that is worth knowing too.
Sources for this page
- Florida Division of Retirement, Employer Handbook Chapter 9, Pension Plan Service Retirement, and Chapter 15, Glossary of Terms
- Division of Retirement Information Release 2023-230, implementing Chapter 2023-193, Laws of Florida
- MyFRS, Understanding Your Benefits Under the Pension Plan, the forms library and the Health Insurance Subsidy page
- MyFRS, Working After Retirement, FRS Pension Plan, July 2025
- Palm Beach County Fire Fighters Employee Benefits Fund, retiree benefits guidance, myffbenefits.com, undated
- Palm Beach County Firefighters' Retirement Insurance Fund, pbcretiree.com, board announcements of February 2025 and October 2026, and the 2026 affidavit of continued eligibility
- IRS Form 990 filings for the Retirement Insurance Fund, EIN 65-0739528, fiscal year ending December 2024
- Collective Bargaining Agreement between Palm Beach County and Professional Firefighters and Paramedics of Palm Beach County, IAFF Local 2928, October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2027, readable portion
- Palm Beach County Merit System Rules, revised April 2023
- Palm Beach County Human Resources and Risk Management retirement pages
Plan rules, contract terms, deadlines and dollar amounts change. Where a source could not be verified, this page says so rather than filling the gap. Confirm everything with the office that controls it before you act on it.
Related
The rest of it
Questions about your own numbers
I went through this process myself
I am Mark Buckley, retired Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. I wrote Beyond The Firehouse because these questions kept coming up in station kitchens and union halls and there was no plain language book that answered them for the fire service. If something on this page raised a question about your own situation, reach out. No cost, no pitch.
mark.buckley@prudential.com
305-608-2690