Member Account Information Requests

At the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia (TRS), we are committed to honoring the privacy of our customers. In an effort to protect our members, we have tightened our policy regarding the release of confidential information. The TRS Confidentiality Policy helps to ensure that the release of personal information is authorized by the appropriate person or a properly executed power of attorney or guardian.

What does this mean for you? We realize that you act on behalf of your employees (our members) regarding TRS matters and our goal is to not only protect them, but to make doing business with us as easy as possible. Enforcing this policy will require that you obtain written permission from each member for whom you are requesting confidential information regarding his or her TRS account. Information requiring a signed release form or letter includes, but is not limited to: benefit estimates, gross and net benefit amounts, federal and state tax amounts, health insurance premium amounts, effective date of retirement, and the benefit duration of retirement.

This, however, does not affect the information you provide to TRS regarding monthly reporting. Please continue conducting “business as usual” in this regard.

How does the policy work? Confidential member information requested by an employer, for use in its ordinary course of business, will be released to the employer only with the express prior consent of the member. Such consent must be in writing and signed by the member (matching the signature TRS has on file for the member, although further confirmation of identification may be required by TRS).

It is preferable that a request for the release of confidential information, by TRS to an employer, be made by completing a TRS Certification and Information Release Authorization Form, although a letter written and signed by the member is also acceptable. We recommend that as members make requests through you, you ask them to fill out and sign this form, then fax or send it to TRS with the member’s request.

Release forms and letters on file with TRS will be valid for one year from the date on the form or letter. Once that time period expires, a new release document, signed by the member, will be required for the release of confidential information.

If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact TRS at (404) 352-6500 or (800) 352-0650. As always, we appreciate your continued support and thank you for your partnership.