Investment Education

As an INPRS member, you may have a Defined Contribution (DC) account where you can choose how the money is invested.

How do I choose my investments?

INPRS offers a menu of investment funds for your DC account so you can align your investments with your retirement goals.

How do you choose what is right for you? You have to consider risk and return. Everyone wants their account to grow ("return") however, the investments that tend to grow the most tend to also be the most volatile and can lose money ("risk"). What balance is right for you?

There are three levers to think about:

• Risk tolerance, or how comfortable you are with the account value rising and falling with the markets.

• Age, which may help determine risk tolerance. Younger members may be able to afford to take on more market risk since stock losses can be made up over time. Members closer to retirement may want to allocate more to low risk investments that provide regular income.

• Portfolio diversification: the concept of spreading your money among different types of investments to reduce overall risk.

This tool can help you identify what types of investments might help you build a well-diversified portfolio to help reach your retirement goals.

• Target Date Funds: pursues an investment strategy consistent with a specific target retirement date through a diversified portfolio. The underlying investments automatically shift to become more conservative as the retirement date approaches.

• Large Cap Equity Fund: seeks investment growth/capital appreciation through passive investment in the stocks of the 500 largest U.S. companies.

• Small/Mid Cap Equity Fund: seeks investment growth/capital appreciation through both active and passive investment in stocks of small- and mid-sized U.S. companies.

• International Equity Fund: seeks investment growth/capital appreciation through both active and passive investment in stocks of non-U.S. companies in both developed and emerging markets.

• Fixed Income Fund: seeks total return, consisting of income and capital appreciation, through both active and passive investment in a diversified bond portfolio.

• Inflation-Linked Fixed Income Fund: seeks to generate returns that keep up with inflation, through passive investment in inflation-linked bonds.

• Stable Value Fund & Money Market Fund: the investment objective of these funds is to provide a market rate of return consistent with the preservation of capital through a shorter-maturity, high quality portfolio.

Just like a pre-portioned meal kit, Target Date Funds have the ingredients you need to grow your retirement savings based on your goals. INPRS offers 12 different Target Date Fund options, each designed to match up with the year you plan to retire. Before we dig into which fund is best for you, it's important to understand what's inside a Target Date Fund and what each piece does for you to be ready when it's your turn to retire.

The Ingredients

• US Large Cap Equity

• US Small/Mid-Cap Equity

• International Equity

• Fixed Income

• Inflation-Linked Fixed Income

• Stable Value Fund

Each of the Target Date Funds holds a unique blend of the investments listed above. The blend adjusts over time, slowly shifting to be more conservative so it is less risky (volatile) by the time you are ready to start withdrawing.

Why Choose INPRS Target Date Funds?

Convenience and confidence. The convenience factor is that it changes with you over time as you approach retirement age — INPRS has done the work for you. The confidence factor is that INPRS has your best interests behind everything we do. Bound by Indiana Code, the INPRS Board of Trustees approved investment policy statement, and our code of ethics to make sound investment choices, we're solely motivated to do what's best for you and your retirement.

Log onto your personal account at myINPRSretirement.org. You can select:

• How new contributions are invested (i.e., each future payroll)

• How the existing balance is invested

An annuity provides you with guaranteed lifetime income. It converts all or a portion of your DC funds into lifelong monthly payments that are guaranteed, no matter what happens in the market or how long you live. Annuitizing even a portion of your DC funds can provide the security of a monthly paycheck for life. You must have a minimum of $5,000 in your DC account to elect to annuitize.

INPRS partners with MetLife to offer annuities at competitive rates. With MetLife, not only do you still have the ability to purchase a lifetime income annuity with all your INPRS defined contribution (DC) and rollover savings account (RSA) assets, but also only a portion of those assets.

Please visit the MetLife Retirement Income Center to get an annuity estimate. If you are not eligible, not ready to retire, or do not wish to annuitize your retirement funds, there's nothing you need to do now.

Last Day in Pay vs. Retirement Date

Cash Refund Feature

The cash refund feature is optional for INPRS participants when purchasing annuities from MetLife. Retiring members are able to choose MetLife's annuity payment options — the single life annuity or the joint and survivor annuity — with or without the cash refund feature. A cash refund feature is when a member receives an annuity for life, and at their death, the beneficiary gets the total used in calculating the annuity minus the total annuity payments made to the member.

For example, if you purchase an annuity for $100,000 and are paid out only $60,000 before you pass away, your designated beneficiary will receive the remaining balance that you had paid for your annuity, or approximately $40,000.

• Full or partial lump sum distributions available

• Taxable in the year paid

• Mandatory 20% federal withholding on taxable portion

• State (all U.S.) and local (IN residents only) taxes can be withheld

• If post-tax and pre-tax amounts involved, treated on pro-rata basis if a partial lump sum is chosen

A rollover moves your DC balance to another qualified retirement account.

• Your money becomes taxable when it's distributed to you from the rollover account.

• You can roll over to any qualified plan that accepts rollovers (IRA, 401(k), 457(b), etc.).

• Your DC Plan is considered a qualified 401(a) plan under the Internal Revenue Code.

Systematic Withdrawal Plans (SWPs) allow the member to create a stream of payments that can be changed at any time.

Time-based: the member elects a series of payments in either amount and frequency or time frame and frequency.

Frequency options: monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually.

• Designed to deplete balance by end of term selected

• Member maintains investment control of remaining balance

• If time term is scheduled for less than 10 years, each SWP payment is considered a partial lump sum with 20% mandatory tax withholding requirement

• If term is scheduled for longer than 10 years, federal and state tax withholding will be established

• Leave account balance invested at INPRS

• You can access the balance at any time

• You are responsible for managing investments

  • Option to reallocate to a more secure investment approach

• Required Minimum Distribution will begin at age 73

• Keep beneficiaries up to date

Members are allowed to split the DC balance in situations where more than one distribution option is desired.

Examples of Splitting the DC Balance

• 25% Lump, 25% Rollover, 50% Annuity

• 75% Rollover, 25% Lump

• 75% Defer, 25% Lump

• Plan members pay administrative fees to cover the costs associated with managing their defined contribution (DC) accounts.

• Effective March 1, 2026, administrative fees of $3.14 are deducted directly from members' DC accounts each month from 03/01/2026 to 01/01/2027 for an annual charge of $38. These fees are subject to change annually. This deduction is noted in your quarterly member statement. PERF and TRF Hybrid members will find the fee noted on their annual member statement.

• For members of the PERF My Choice and TRF My Choice plans, the annual charge is currently subsidized by the plan's forfeiture balance. All other plans are charged the annual fee.

• INPRS's DC member fee policy outlines the method used to determine administrative fees. View the fee policy here.

Members who recently viewed their statements or logged into their secure INPRS account at myINPRSretirement.org may have noticed the previous administrative fee of $3.42 assessed to their DC accounts, resulting in an incorrect overpayment of $0.25 for February 1, 2026. To correct this miscalculation, the admin fee for the next 11 months (March 1, 2026 to January 1, 2027) will be $3.14.

• INPRS's DC Plan investment options each carry an "expense ratio." An expense ratio measures how much you'll pay throughout the year to own an investment option. The expense ratio is expressed as a percentage for each investment option.

• When you view your DC account, your online statement will show how much money you gained or lost, known as net of fees. All expenses are deducted from your investment option(s) before showing how much you gained or lost.

• For further details on expense ratios and to view the fee table, click here.

• You can use the equation below to calculate how many dollars you're paying annually in fees:

For example, if you have $6,000 in a fund with an expense ratio of 0.10%, you'll pay $6.00 per year in investment fees.

View your investment options and their associated expense ratios by logging into your secure online account at myINPRSretirement.org.