I finally retired from Los Angeles County. LACERA was extremely helpful and thorough setting me up. (See previous review). I needed to complete some additional paperwork to comply with IRS roles. Maria setup a telephone meeting after fedexing me the documents. Everything had to be completed properly to go smoothly. She was patient and thorough as well. I am impressed with LACERA's staff and management. Their responsible care of the funds is evident in the financial reports. Not all pension funds are the same. read more

Before I posted this review I noticed a lot of negative reviews, so before I begin, I was a bit surprised by this. I have dealt with LACERA fir an extremely long time and have always had excellent customer service . Sometimes the wait times are long, but everyone has been very, in fact, extremely competent and knowledgeable. My review is based on my experience on Monday, 10/17/22. My appointment was at 7:20 am, and was regarding my official retirement which is a big deal for me. Traffic was horrible and I was clearly going to be late, so I called to let them know, and also I had never been to their office. The lady instantly sent an email to my specialist Percy, and he was totally fine. The lady also decided to stay on the phone with me for 15 minutes while I was driving, keeping Percy informed and guided me to the building, into parking, then into the office! How cool. My retirement consisted of filling out forms, writing declarations and beneficiaries, and transfers/rollovers of monies, and new health and dental plans. Percy was so patient with all my questions and had all the answers, and was quick to help complete the process. All I can say is outstanding customer service. I have always thought highly of how this organization is run. Well that's my take, and 5 stars from me. read more

LACERA - The office. - Public Services & Government Near Me - Pasadena, California

My Zoom retirement appointment scheduled for 9:40 a.m this morning. I did not receive an email with Zoom link until 9:50 a.m. I logged in. I'm still waiting for the host to log in at 10:47 a.m. The host is PZ. This is outrageous. Someone needs to fire this woman. I'll file a complaint on Monday. This is unprofessional and a total disgrace on LACERA. P.S. It's 11:00 a.m., and I decided to log off. The representative of Lacera did not show up for my Zoom retirement scheduled appointment. read more

i give lacera zero stars! it's very unethical for this company for bully emploee's to pay 9.28% per pay check during theses tuff times, we should be able to select the percentage taken out for our pension... lacera has been taking an additinal $147.04x2 for buy back time, however i disputed this being i did not sign the agreement! i've been ignored by them and when i tried flowing up with lacera they told me it will be heard during a board meeting, it's been more than a year since i started the dispute! it appears their trying to wait out the 3yrs 4months leaving 22 remaining payments. this company is nothing but a ponzi scheme and & pyramid! lacera exstorts money from the employees to pay out retiree's monthley benefits! what happend to all the money lacera has taken from employees whom paid for over 20-40 years working with l.a county? lacera is robbing peter to pay paul with the employees hard earned money. inflation is at an all time high & i can't afford for lacera to take my money i worked for & give it to someone else to live stress free! i was bullied into plan g my choices was stollen from me, & this is not fair la county does not care for the well being of it's empolyees & if there was a way for me to stop paying into lacera i would, & as soon as i find a way to take my money out of lacera pension i am. due to me being forced to work two job classifications my item tech support, & a vacant seat mail clerk(itc) i've sustained multiple injuries that caused me to miss work which has caused a financial hardship! lacera takes 9.28% per pay period plus an additinal $147 per pay chek which=$294 on top of the 9.28%. horrible horrible horrible. i would love to not stress today on how i'm going to make it in todays inflation, & not so much worry about what's going to happen 10-15 years from now! i really wish lacera had empathy & compassion for the members. read more

I called in and spoke to Erica and also Kathy and John at Lacera and they help me tremendously. I'm retired and there was an issue with my medical coverage and they were so helpful and so great. Lacera is just wonderful. I would recommend recommend to anybody to always call Lacera for the information and they walk you through everything. read more

Although I have very little invested in this pension, the staff are always hospitable and kind. It was difficult to communicate with staff during COVID-19, but since opening, I just wanted to see the level of service being provided, since they reopened their offices. So far, so good and everything is done personally. I really want to do business and hate trying to do my retirement paperwork via e-mail or electronic forms... read more

LACERA - Entryway during the holidays - Public Services & Government Near Me - Pasadena, California

Any number you call, you'll wait a good hour or more for someone to answer. When they finally answer they ask you a bunch of questions and then notify you that you called the wrong number. "I hope you weren't waiting on hold long, you needed to call member services." When you call member services, it directs you to call the previous number where you just wasted over an hour of your day. The office is closed. You can submit forms to a drop box but there is no guarantee they will verify receipt for up to a month. This company is very difficult to access. Which can be infuriating when they are holding on to your money and you can do nothing about it. read more

Sadly my brother and I are forced to deal with LACERA after the passing of my father. All the reviews are accurate. Rude customer service, poor people skills, contradictory information given out and a defensive attitude is all I've received so far. They come off as extremely dishonest and secretive. My father is gone and I've asked for, what should be, a simple audit of his retirement funds and we are denied. We requested the audit because they refuse to provide even the beneficiary with any information about the account. Including what is left in the retirement. They actually expect you to just take their word and go away. After speaking with a very unpleasant customer service rep on the phone today, I was told good luck (very condescendingly) and to write a letter. They cite policy or worse client privacy even when the member has passed and privacy is no longe a factor. In one of the most stressful times a person can have, losing a parent, they have made it even harder. A simple request can't even be fulfilled and I have the feeling I'm dealing with grifters. Ill update this if things change (better or worse). I sincerely hope I can update this post with a positive ending. Time will tell. read more

I've been on hold for over one hour. The worst part, is the automated voice has given the same wait time (63 min) for a half hour! How can it not decrease for over 30 minutes?? In the almost one and one half hours I've been on hold now, the estimated wait time has only gone down 3 minutes. How can that be?? After all of that, they will close before my wait time is up!! I've been on hold since about 3pm, and according to my wait time, they can't get to me until 5:20. After closing. So I wasted 2 hours. Ridiculous! Hire more people if you can't provide adequate customer service! read more

The employees are very unprofessional and dishonest!! My mother who was a former county employee had passed away and me a County Employee myself had requested her retirement benefits, so I filled out the two forms they provided for me and went over to AAA to have them notarized and I sign while there and mailed them with my mom's Death Certificate! I called to check and when they tell me that they received it and everything is correct and getting processed! I'm waiting to receive my check but instead, I get a disturbing letter from them stating that they can't process the forms and give me one of the forms that I had already filled out and notarized to redo and they told me everything was correct ‼ I have to drive down there this week to find out what the problem is!! read more

I am the brother of a LACERA retiree and the Guardian for her person and Trustee of her estate. LACERA has been almost impossible to deal with. Several of her retirement checks never arrived and I stopped payment on the first two. The staff people I talked to, after many delays, only gave me excuses, but no help except that I was told to write a letter. The substance of my letter was that my sister was suffering from dementia and was living in a memory care home. LACERA benefits are her only source of income so she needs this money! I am fortunate not to live in California so a personal visit is out of the question for me and I doubt it would do any better to get her retirement benefits restored. read more

I called this morning to get information from regarding a change of address and the LACERA representative was extremely rude and ill-mannered. Customer service in this organization is horrible. read more

I don't have a computer to go on line. Been trying everyday by phone to get to talk someone to set up an appointment about retirement. Been put on hold for 21 mins. That's it! Some customer service. Looks like I'll have to go in person to get an appointment then I bet I'll have to go back another time for that too. UGH! If I could I would give them a no star. read more

I'm here with a friend who came to get the retirement money, the guy in the front desk in the second floor has a really nasty attitude , so rude !!! He treat here people like they are coming to beg for money, #1 he has a job thanks to people who comes here and #2 he should be nicer and more humble cause he is the face of this company who receives the costumers. Make sure when you come here that you can take this treatment and I thank God this is not the company where I'm investing my money. I feel really bad for people who is not knowledge and who are humble and deal with him , or maybe his attitude is only with women cause I'm listening right now he is talking with a gentleman at the phone and he totally changed , keep your eyes open people read more

The people here are very nice and helpful. I've come here with my dad several times to help him plan for his retirement after 21 years at LA County. They have validated parking which is great because local parking is very tough. We've always done the walk in appointment, but I highly recommend making an appointment online because the walk in wait is always very long. It usually is at least an hour wait. But once you're seen, they don't rush you and answer all of your questions. read more

LACERA - Sign at check in booth. - Public Services & Government Near Me - Pasadena, California

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The medical Dept. Lacks educated employees.. . Yes, hummmm, ok AND I don't understand! so often said by the staff ! I pay $ 1400+ for medical care. I kindly would so greatly appreciate a employee that could helping navigate the BShi**** that Anthem craps out on its subscribers...LACERA PLEASE FIGHT FOR US read more

I am a member of LACERA and the telephone hold time is exhaustingly long ( 15-20 minutes average) when I can get through. The member service people must lack professional telephone training, Joanna my most recent kept cutting me off and was determined to not let me ask my question. She was the opposite of helpful and rude. Also, the only way they will accept any written correspondence is by snail mail or fax? No emails accepted? In 2017? It seems their process and business model is designed to incorporate delay and incompetence. I am working through and address change and it has been 3 weeks. I was told on my original phone call it could take 3 weeks or longer. The front line phone representatives are not very helpful and I immediately ask for the Supervisor. I guess this is how you do business when your members can't go elsewhere. read more

Very poor communication. They are not helpful to retiree's. They seem like they care prior to retirement, but once you are retired, they basically just throw any customer service out the window. read more

I was surprised and pleased that they saw me right away for a 7:30am Friday appointment. I was lucky to get Rebecca as my retirement advisor because she was able to help me through the process far more easily than I had anticipated. She was able to show me 8 different scenarios of potential retirement options and was very knowledgeable about how social security would fit in, and what the best medical options would be. After going to LACERA and speaking to them I feel much more confidant about my upcoming retirement. When I get closer to the time of retirement I will go back to LACERA for some last minute questions, and I hope to be able to see Rebecca again also. read more

I don't understand how hard it is for someone to follow simple directions. Thankfully I no longer work for LA County because this company is a rip off. It's a mandatory retirement plan and you can't opt out unless you switch companies. When I got hired, they threw me into the plan where I pretty much wouldn't get much when I retire and I wasn't able to switch. Anyways, I am now an employer for a wonderful company and am trying to pull out what I have in my plan to roll it over. This company makes it so time consuming to roll it over. It's been about 3 weeks now and I still didn't get my correct check because they wrote the wrong company on the check. How hard is it to copy word for word? And then they forced me to mail back the incorrect check so they can reissue a new one. What the? Why can't you just void that check? Idiots. So I have to pretty much pay the post office to return a check that they messed up on. They also didn't fill out or return the form that I had asked them to fill out. I'm sure a 3 year old can do a better job than these idiots. read more

Horrible organization, don't trust them. The staff can be very unprofessional and lack customer service.