Accessing Your Money

You do not have to take your money out of your BART Retirement Plans when you retire or end employment. BART offers a variety of distribution options to suit your needs, including installment payments and partial withdrawals You can leave your money in the plan until you are age 73, when you are required by the Internal Revenue Service to take minimum distributions. Keeping your money in your BART Retirement Plans may provide you with potentially more cost-effective retirement opportunities than rolling your money into a traditional IRA. Why keep your assets in the plan? Several considerations are found in the Leaving Employment Guide.

Distribution Options

BART Retirement Plans offers a variety of distribution options to suit your needs. Distribution options can be changed at any time. You can log in to your account and select Withdrawals to request a full, partial, or set up installments from your account.

Distribution options Include:

  • Full lump-sum distribution
  • Partial lump-sum distribution
  • Installment payments (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually)
  • Partial lump-sum distributions combined with installment payments
  • Full or partial Rollover over into another eligible retirement plan, Traditional or Roth IRA that accepts such rollovers.*

For additional information on taking distributions and any penalties that may apply, please contact a BART Participant Services Representative toll-free at 1-833-538-BART (2278).

* An IRS penalty for withdrawals from these plans prior to age 59½ may apply. The IRS penalty for early withdrawals does not apply to monies withdrawn from a 457(b) Plan.

Consolidation Options

BART Retirement Plans will accept incoming rollovers from other eligible retirement plan such as a 401(a), 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), Traditional or Roth IRA as long as you maintain a balance of $1,000 in the plan. In addition, the plan will accept incoming designated Roth account rollovers from 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) Plans.

For additional questions, please contact your BART Retirement Plan Specialist.

Leaving Employment Guide

The Leaving Employment Guide for your Investment Plans is for participants who are retiring or leaving BART which covers the benefits of keeping money in your BART Retirement Plans, next steps and resources.

For additional information on taking distributions and any penalties that may apply, please contact a BART Participant Service Representative toll-free at 1-833-BART (2278) or contact your BART Retirement Specialist.