PG&E Retirement Benefits: The Complete Guide to the Pension, 401(k), and RMSA

PG&E employees retire with four benefit systems working at once: one of two pension plans, a 401(k) with a match structure that depends on which pension you are in, a retiree medical account with a depletion clock, and, for management, nonqualified deferred comp. Each one is decent on its own. The retirement outcomes I see are decided by how well the four are coordinated, because they interact in ways that are not obvious until you model them together.

This guide is the map: what each benefit is, the decision it carries, and where to go deeper. I work with PG&E employees across union and management roles, and these are the same pieces I walk through in a first benefits review. The details follow the summary plan descriptions at mypgebenefits.com, and your plan documents always govern.

The pension: two plans, decided mostly by hire date

Hired before 2013, you are generally in the Final Pay plan: a traditional pension that pays a monthly annuity for life based on service and final pay, with no lump sum option. Hired 2013 or later, you are in the Cash Balance plan: an account built from 5 to 10 percent pay credits and quarterly interest credits tied to the 30-year Treasury rate, payable as a lump sum you can roll to an IRA, and portable if you leave early.

The decisions differ by plan. Final Pay participants choose a start date against an early retirement reduction and elect a survivor option. Cash Balance participants face the classic lump sum versus annuity question, without the interest-rate timing pressure AT&T retirees deal with, because the lump sum is simply the account balance. The full side-by-side, including the 401(k) match differences and what leaving early costs in each plan, is in my PG&E Cash Balance vs. Final Pay guide, and you can estimate either benefit in the utility pension calculator.

The 401(k): a match worth optimizing, and an election most people miss

Your match depends on your pension plan. Cash Balance participants get the richer structure: 75 percent on contributions up to 8 percent of salary, plus a 2.4 percent employer contribution that arrives regardless of what you defer. Final Pay participants get 75 percent up to 6 percent (management) or 60 percent up to 6 percent (union).

The trap is the spillover election. When pre-tax contributions hit the IRS annual limit mid-year, the match stops unless contributions automatically continue on an after-tax basis. For Cash Balance participants, a missed election is worth roughly $1,200 a year in forfeited match, per the union's published example, and no notification tells you it happened. The election lives in Fidelity NetBenefits and takes minutes to fix.

The same after-tax contribution feature, paired with in-service distributions, opens the mega backdoor Roth: rolling after-tax 401(k) contributions into a Roth IRA, adding tax-free savings well beyond the standard limits. As of January 2026, IBEW 1245 members also have the Roth 401(k) option for the first time. My mega backdoor Roth guide covers the mechanics and limits.

The RMSA: the benefit that sets more retirement dates than the pension

PG&E funds a Retiree Medical Savings Account on your behalf starting at age 45, with contributions that step up at 20 years of service. At retirement (55 or later with 10 or more years of service), the account pays PG&E-sponsored retiree medical premiums, and nothing else. It is not an HSA and you cannot add to it. It is a fixed pot with a depletion date, and if you retire early, that date can arrive before Medicare does.

This is the single most misunderstood benefit at PG&E, and often the binding constraint on retirement timing. The depletion mechanics, the RMSA-versus-HSA comparison, and the questions to ask the plan administrator are in my full RMSA explainer. The calculator's RMSA tab projects your run-out date in about two minutes.

Deferred comp for management: SRSP and SERP

Eligible management employees can defer salary and bonus into the Supplemental Retirement Savings Plan, a nonqualified plan that mirrors the 401(k) above IRS limits, and qualifying executives accrue additional benefits in the SERP. Both are unfunded promises of PG&E, which means they sit with general creditors if the company faces distress again, a scenario PG&E's history makes more than hypothetical. Deferral elections and distribution schedules deserve real care here: pension, SRSP payouts, and Social Security all stack as ordinary income, and poorly sequenced start dates can pile into a high bracket in year one of retirement.

How the pieces fit: the decisions in order

If you want the working-with-me version of all of this, my PG&E employee planning page covers what a benefits review looks like, including the California tax angle for anyone considering an Arizona or Nevada move before distributions start.

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