An FRS to gold IRA question has two completely different answers, and which one applies to you was settled the day you picked a plan. Investment Plan members hold a balance in their own name that a custodian can receive. Pension Plan members hold a promise, not a balance, and the only Pension Plan money that ever leaves the trust fund in a movable form is a DROP accumulation. Everything else on this page follows from that split: when the plan will release money, which slices are ineligible, and the one federal exception Florida public employees quietly forfeit at the IRA door.
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Both halves of the Florida Retirement System are qualified plans under section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, and both take the same 3 percent out of your paycheck. That is where the similarity stops. The Pension Plan is a defined benefit arrangement: your contributions and your employer's go into a single trust fund that pays every retiree, and your own benefit is set by a formula that ignores what was paid in on your behalf. The Investment Plan is a defined contribution arrangement, so the money lands in an individual account with your name on it and your benefit is whatever that account is worth on the day you take it.
The employer side shows how differently the two are funded. On the rates MyFRS publishes as effective July 1, 2026, a Regular Class employee sees 8.30 percent of salary deposited into an Investment Plan account, while the Pension Plan blended employer rate for the same class is 13.59 percent paid into the trust fund. The higher pension rate does not mean a bigger pot waiting for you, because there is no personal pot. It means the actuaries priced a promise.
Vesting then compounds the difference. One year of FRS service vests an Investment Plan benefit. Six years vests the Pension Plan if you enrolled before July 1, 2011, and eight years if you enrolled on or after that date. Four years of service therefore leaves an Investment Plan member owning a balance outright, and a Pension Plan colleague hired the same week owning nothing beyond a refund of personal contributions.
Florida public employees rarely hold one clean balance. A long career can leave you with a monthly benefit, a DROP accumulation, an Investment Plan account from a second election, and an after-tax slice from a service purchase. Each behaves differently at the exit.
| WHERE THE MONEY SITS | CAN IT REACH AN IRA | THE RULE AS PUBLISHED | WHAT GATES IT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Investment Plan vested balance | Yes, by direct rollover | MyFRS lists a rollover to an Individual Retirement Account among the choices for a vested member who leaves for a non-FRS employer. | Termination of all FRS employment plus three full calendar months off every FRS payroll. |
| Pension Plan monthly benefit | No | MyFRS states the Pension Plan payment can only be taken in the form of a lifetime annuity, which is why it carries no early withdrawal penalty at any age. | Nothing gates it, because nothing about it is movable. |
| DROP accumulation, pre-tax | Yes | The member handbook lists a lump sum, a direct rollover to an eligible account under section 402(c)(8)(B), or a combined partial lump sum and rollover. | Verified termination plus your payout election. Payment comes no earlier than the calendar month after your employment ends. |
| DROP accumulation, after-tax portion | No | MyFRS states amounts based on after-tax personal contributions are not eligible for rollover and are paid as a tax-free lump sum under the Simplified General Rule. | Arrives as a separate check. Plan for it rather than being surprised by it. |
| Refund of employee contributions | Treat as unresolved | The handbook describes the refund and states it excludes employer contributions and interest earnings. It does not describe rollover treatment, so we will not assert one. | Three consecutive calendar months off all FRS payrolls, Form FRS-M81, and the loss of the service credit the refund represents. |
Rules as published by MyFRS.com and the Division of Retirement member handbook, read August 12, 2026. Plan rules change by legislative session; confirm your own position with the MyFRS Financial Guidance Line before you sign anything.
This is the part that surprises people who expected a 401(k) experience. MyFRS states that a member may request a distribution of the vested portion of an Investment Plan account only after terminating all FRS employment with FRS employers, including positions not covered by the FRS, and remaining unemployed by any FRS employer for three full calendar months. The waiting period is attributed to Rule 19-11.003 of the Florida Administrative Code, and MyFRS explains its purpose plainly: the contribution file has to post so the Division can record your contributions and your termination date.
The definition of FRS employment is far wider than most members assume. MyFRS defines it as being actively employed by any FRS employer in any capacity, and separately as providing any service to any FRS employer through any arrangement, paid or unpaid, listing OPS work, adjunct teaching, election poll work, temporary employment and work through a third party that serves an FRS-covered employer. A retired teacher who proctors an exam, or a former county employee who works a polling place in November, has done FRS employment for this purpose.
There is one shortcut, and it is partial. If you have reached the Investment Plan definition of normal retirement, MyFRS says you can take a one-time distribution of up to 10 percent of the account balance after one full calendar month of termination, with the remainder available after an additional two calendar months. Note that the Investment Plan sets normal retirement at age 65 with one or more years of covered service for members hired after July 1, 2011, or any age with 33 or more years, which is a different test from the Pension Plan vesting thresholds people usually quote.
| YOUR SITUATION | WHEN THE PLAN WILL RELEASE FUNDS | HOW MUCH |
|---|---|---|
| Terminated in January, not at normal retirement | First business day of May, after February, March and April pass as full calendar months | The full vested balance |
| Terminated in January, already at normal retirement | After February passes as one full calendar month | A one-time slice of up to 10 percent |
| The same member, two months later | After April, once two further calendar months pass | The rest of the account |
| Vested balance of $1,000 or less | Automatic distribution, but not until six calendar months of termination have passed | The whole balance, as cash or a rollover |
| Any of the above with a QDRO or child support hold | Nothing moves until the hold is satisfied and removed | Nothing |
Calendar built from the worked example and the payout conditions published on the MyFRS benefit payouts page, read August 12, 2026. Your employer must report the termination date on the monthly contribution file before any request can be processed.
One sentence on the MyFRS payouts page settles a question that costs people weeks. Rollovers can only be initiated by the member, and the Investment Plan Administrator will not accept rollover forms from the institution receiving the rollover. Whatever a dealer's brochure promises, the request has to come from you, by phone with your PIN or through your MyFRS login. What the receiving side can usefully do is supply correct payee wording in advance, since MyFRS says the rollover is generally a check payable to the receiving institution for your benefit, mailed to that institution or to your address on file, with ACH available at some.
The Deferred Retirement Option Program is the Pension Plan's only movable money, and it is available to vested members who have reached their normal retirement date. MyFRS describes participation of up to 96 months, extended to 120 months in certain circumstances for instructional personnel as defined in section 1012.01(2)(a) to (d), Florida Statutes. While you are in DROP you keep working, stop earning service credit, and your monthly benefit accumulates in the trust fund. The member handbook states that the account earns interest compounded monthly at an effective annual rate of 4.00 percent, with no interest on benefits on deposit for less than one month and none at all after your DROP participation ends.
That last clause is the timing fact worth acting on. A DROP accumulation stops growing the day participation ends, so the weeks between your final day and a funded metals purchase are idle in a way an invested Investment Plan balance is not. The handbook says the Division sends your termination and payout election forms roughly 90 days before your scheduled termination date, and that the payout follows verification of termination but comes no earlier than the calendar month after your last day. Use those 90 days to pick a custodian and have an account number in hand before Form DP-PAYT goes back.
Two slices will not travel with the rest. MyFRS states that DROP accumulations based on after-tax personal contributions, the kind created by buying additional service credit before entering DROP, cannot be rolled over and are paid as a tax-free lump sum computed under the Simplified General Rule, which is why some retirees receive two checks. It also states that if you have already met the required minimum distribution rules, those applicable funds are paid in a lump sum and cannot be rolled. Ask for the split in writing before you tell any dealer what you plan to buy.
Florida enforces a termination requirement that has no analogue in most private plans. The member handbook states a six-calendar-month termination requirement for Pension Plan and Investment Plan members, says an employment relationship with an FRS employer in any capacity during that period may void your retirement, and warns that the member and the employer may be held jointly and severally liable for repayment of all retirement benefits received, including any DROP accumulation or payout. It adds that there are no exceptions. Metal already purchased inside an IRA is a slow thing to unwind, so the substitute-teaching offer in month four is a decision about your retirement, not about your calendar.
Here is the detail that matters most to the members who read pages like this one, and it is almost never mentioned on a sales call. The IRS exception to the 10 percent additional tax for separating from service during or after the year you reach age 55, which drops to age 50 for public safety employees of a state or its political subdivisions in a governmental defined benefit or defined contribution plan, is published as applying to qualified plans and not to IRAs. MyFRS says the same thing from the FRS side, noting your exposure is set by your age at FRS-covered employment termination and that the 10 percent penalty on lump sums taken before age 59 and a half applies to distributions from the Investment Plan, tax-deferred annuities and traditional IRAs alike.
Run it on a real Florida career. A deputy separates at 52 with 25 years of Special Risk service and a DROP accumulation. Inside the FRS, that money is reachable without the additional 10 percent under the public safety threshold. Roll the same dollars into a metals IRA and the shelter does not travel with them: reaching that money before 59 and a half generally means the penalty applies. Nothing about the retirement changed. The wrapper did.
The rule that falls out of this is simple. Work out how much you need to reach before 59 and a half, leave that portion where the exception still protects it, and let only the surplus go to metal.
Every active FRS member gets one lifetime switch between plans, and it gets misread as a way to convert a pension into something portable. Two things stop that. The switch happens while you are still employed by an FRS employer, and the payout rules above require the opposite. And MyFRS is explicit that any benefit amount transferred from the Pension Plan to the Investment Plan stays subject to the Pension Plan's six-year or eight-year vesting requirement rather than the Investment Plan's one-year rule.
The trap that follows is severe enough to be worth its own sentence. MyFRS states that if you leave FRS employment vested in your Investment Plan benefit but before the transferred Pension Plan benefit has vested, taking any distribution from the Investment Plan forfeits the transferred pension money, whereas leaving it alone parks it in a suspense account where it accrues actual investment earnings. A rollover is a distribution. Someone who transferred a present value at year five, left at year seven, and moved the account into a metals IRA could give up the transferred pension amount to buy coins.
One more consequence applies to every Investment Plan exit, not just second-election cases. MyFRS states that when a member takes a distribution, including a rollover, the FRS considers that member retired, and that retired members lose any non-vested Investment Plan or prior Pension Plan service and benefit. Nobody at a dealership is tracking your Florida service credit. You are.
Article VII, Section 5(a) of the Florida Constitution prohibits the state from levying a tax on the income of natural persons who are residents or citizens of Florida beyond amounts creditable against a similar federal tax. That removes one layer entirely, which is why the MyFRS termination kit warns members in states requiring withholding that more will be taken out.
The federal layer is untouched by your address. MyFRS states that a mandatory 20 percent is withheld from the taxable amount of any payout unless you roll over the entire distribution, and the termination kit works a $30,000 example down to a $21,000 net payment after $6,000 of withholding and a $3,000 early withdrawal penalty for a member under 59 and a half. A direct rollover avoids the withholding outright; the sequence and the 60-day repair window if you take cash first are covered on our gold IRA rollover hub and in the rollover rules. One Florida-specific footnote from the kit: if your address of record is outside the United States when payment is made, a 30 percent rate may apply unless you qualify for less, which catches snowbird retirees who changed their mailing address before the payout cleared.
MyFRS publishes its own numbers, and they set a high bar. The plan charges a quarterly administrative fee of $6, stated as $24 annually, on top of the management fee of whichever funds you hold, and it describes 20 funds with annual fees as low as 0.01 percent plus 11 retirement date funds. Anything you move out has to earn its keep against a floor most private plans never reach.
A self-directed metals IRA, by contrast, sets a minimum before it will take you at all, then charges a flat annual cost that does not shrink as the balance grows. The table below matches published minimums to the balance sizes Florida members actually arrive with.
| WHAT YOU ARE MOVING | PROVIDERS THAT WILL TAKE IT | SHUT OUT AT THIS SIZE | THE FRS SIDE OF THE TRADE |
|---|---|---|---|
| A small account from a few years of service, under $5,000 | None of the ten we track | All of them | Keep it invested, or watch the $1,000 floor: MyFRS says a balance falling below $1,000 triggers a mandatory distribution of the full amount. |
| $10,000 to $24,000 | Orion Metal Exchange, Birch Gold Group, American Hartford Gold, American Bullion, Lear Capital | Goldco, Patriot, Advantage, Noble, Augusta | A flat annual metals fee is a heavy percentage at this size next to a $24 plan administrative charge. |
| $25,000 to $49,000, a typical mid-career balance | Nine of the ten | Augusta Precious Metals, on a roughly $50,000 minimum | Birch's first-year waiver needs a qualifying rollover of $50,000 or more, so it does not trigger here. |
| A DROP accumulation of $100,000 or more | All ten | None | Every waiver is open to you, which makes the custodian's own schedule, not the promotion, the number to compare. |
Minimums and first-year fee positions from our provider reviews, verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing. FRS plan fees as published by MyFRS.com. Full rankings on the best gold IRA companies page and the fee detail in our gold IRA fees breakdown.
No. MyFRS states that an Investment Plan member can request a distribution only after terminating all FRS employment with FRS employers, including positions not covered by the FRS, and staying off every FRS payroll for three full calendar months. The plan defines FRS employment broadly enough to include OPS work, adjunct teaching, election poll work, temporary jobs and service delivered through a third party that serves an FRS employer. A single shift for any Florida agency inside the waiting window restarts your clock, and no gold IRA provider can shorten it.
No. MyFRS states that the Pension Plan payment can only be taken in the form of a lifetime annuity, which is also why it carries no 10 percent early withdrawal penalty at any age. A defined benefit promise is a stream of payments rather than a balance, so there is nothing for a custodian to receive. The one Pension Plan pot that can leave is a DROP accumulation, which the Division of Retirement will pay as a lump sum, as a direct rollover to an eligible account described in section 402(c)(8)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code, or as a combined partial lump sum and rollover.
MyFRS says you must wait until the first business day of the month following three calendar months from your month of termination, a timing rule it attributes to Rule 19-11.003 of the Florida Administrative Code. Its own example runs January termination to May eligibility. If you have already reached the Investment Plan definition of normal retirement, you can take a one-time distribution of up to 10 percent of the balance after one full calendar month, with the remainder available after an additional two calendar months. Your employer must report the termination date on the monthly contribution file before any of it can be processed.
Usually not all of it. MyFRS states that any DROP accumulation based on after-tax personal contributions, typically from buying additional service credit before you entered DROP, is not eligible for rollover and is paid to you as a tax-free lump sum computed under the Simplified General Rule. It also states that if you have already met the required minimum distribution rules, those funds are paid in a lump sum and cannot be rolled over. Expect a pre-tax amount that can move and one or two smaller amounts that cannot, and confirm the split before you tell any dealer what you intend to buy.
Yes, and it is the single most expensive detail on this page. The IRS exception for separating from service during or after the year you reach age 55, and the lower age 50 or 25 years of service threshold for public safety employees, applies to employer plans and not to IRAs. MyFRS says the same thing from the other direction, noting that your penalty exposure follows your age at FRS-covered employment termination and that the 10 percent penalty on lump sums before age 59 and a half applies to distributions from the Investment Plan, tax-deferred annuities and traditional IRAs. Money you could have reached penalty-free inside the FRS becomes money you cannot reach penalty-free once it sits in a metals IRA.
Not at the state level. Article VII, Section 5(a) of the Florida Constitution bars the state from levying a tax on the income of natural persons who are residents or citizens of Florida beyond what may be credited against a similar federal or state tax. The federal side is unchanged by your address: MyFRS says a mandatory 20 percent is withheld from the taxable amount of any payout unless you roll over the entire distribution, and its termination kit works a $30,000 example down to $21,000 after withholding and an early withdrawal penalty. If your address of record sits outside the United States when payment is made, a 30 percent rate may apply instead.
Related reading: the rollover hub for the paperwork sequence, the transfer and rollover distinction, the deadlines and limits, and our provider rankings.
Every FRS rule on this page was read on the official MyFRS.com pages and the Division of Retirement member handbook on August 12, 2026. Where a rule was not published, we say so instead of filling the gap. Company minimums and fee positions come from our own provider reviews and were verified Jun 2026; confirm current terms with each provider before authorizing anything.
This page is research, not advice. The MyFRS Financial Guidance Line provides free planner access to members, and the plan documents and Florida Statutes prevail over any summary, including ours.
Three calendar months is enough time to compare minimums, get a custodian fee schedule in writing, and confirm which slices of your FRS money are eligible. Our free kit has the comparison; the provider rankings have the order.