Research standards
Research Methodology
How Public Pension Guide researches, calculates, reviews and updates public retirement information.
Our goal is to translate official pension rules without replacing the official plan record or personal professional advice.
Primary sources first
We begin with retirement-system member handbooks, statutes, administrative rules, actuarial material, official calculators and agency notices. Secondary sources may help identify a question, but they do not replace a primary source for a rule or formula.
How a guide is assembled
A guide starts with a member decision, identifies the controlling eligibility or formula rules, then separates the base rule from tier exceptions and account-specific unknowns. The published page shows the calculation, examples, review date, related decisions and source trail used.
Formula verification
Every calculator publishes its formula, inputs, exclusions and effective review date. We test example cases by hand and compare the structure with the official system explanation. Personalized records remain authoritative.
Who publishes and why
Public Pension Guide is the named publisher. Its purpose is to help members understand the questions, inputs and tradeoffs they should verify before an irreversible retirement decision. The publication does not claim government approval or an individual expert review that has not occurred.
Update cycle
High-change pages such as employment-after-retirement limits are checked at least quarterly. Core formula pages are reviewed annually and when legislation or an official notice signals a change.
Corrections
Material corrections are dated and recorded. Readers can report a suspected error through the corrections page without providing account numbers, Social Security numbers or other sensitive information.