The first step will be selecting a vendor. Upon selecting the State of Maryland Optional Retirement Plan (ORP), please contact your institution's Benefits Office to complete the required paperwork to select your vendor of choice. Once you have completed the paperwork making your vendor selection, if you have selected Fidelity Investments, the Benefits Office will notify Fidelity to set up your account.
Once your account has been established and you can see your employer contribution to Fidelity on your first paycheck, use the Fidelity website to access your account and set up your password. Simply log on to www.netbenefits.com/atwork, which will direct you to Fidelity NetBenefits^® or you can call the Fidelity Retirement Representatives at 1-800-343-0860. When you first contact Fidelity, you will need to set up a password. If you are already a Fidelity customer, then you may use your existing password. And then you'll be able to make your investment elections.
The next step is to review your plan's investment options, see how they align with your investment approach, and make your investment elections. Your State of Maryland Optional Retirement Plan offers a variety of investment options.

The State of Maryland provides employer contributions into the Optional Retirement Plan. Please contact your Human Resources department for more details.

At the time of enrollment, you are 100% vested in the Employer contributions to the State of Maryland Optional Retirement Plan.

To help you meet your investment goals, the Plan offers you a range of options. You can select a mix of investment options that best suits your goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance. The many investment options available through the Plan include conservative, moderately conservative, and aggressive funds. A complete description of the Plan’s investment options and their performance, as well as planning tools to help you choose an appropriate mix, are available online.

We encourage you to take an active role in the State of Maryland Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) and choose investment options that best suits your goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance. If you do not select specific investment options in the Plan, your contributions will be invested in the Fidelity Freedom^® Index Fund Institutional Premium Class with the target retirement date closest to the year you might retire, based on your current age and assuming a retirement age of 65, at the direction of the Plan Sponsor.

If no date of birth or an invalid date of birth is on file at Fidelity, contributions may be invested in the Fidelity Freedom^® Index Income Fund Institutional Premium Class. More information about the Fidelity Freedom^® Index Fund Institutional Premium Class options, can be found online.

Target Date Funds are an asset mix of stocks, bonds and other investments that automatically becomes more conservative as the fund approaches its target retirement date and beyond. Principal invested is not guaranteed.

Withdrawals from the Plan are generally permitted when you terminate your employment, retire, or become permanently disabled, as defined by your Plan. Keep in mind that withdrawals are subject to income taxes and possibly to early withdrawal penalties.

You are permitted to roll over eligible pretax contributions from another 401(k) plan, 401(a) plan, or a governmental 457(b) retirement plan account or eligible pretax contributions from another conduit Individual Retirement Accounts (rollover IRAs) and certain non-conduit individual retirement accounts (traditional IRAs, Simplified Employee Pension plans, and "SIMPLE" IRA distributions made more than two years from the date you first participated in the SIMPLE IRA). A conduit IRA is one that contains only money rolled over from an employer-sponsored retirement plan that has not been mixed with regular IRA contributions.

Additional information can be obtained online, or by calling the Fidelity Retirement Representatives at 1-800-343-0860.

Be sure to consider all your available options and the applicable fees and features of each before moving your retirement assets.

If you have not already selected your beneficiaries, or if you have experienced a life-changing event such as a marriage, divorce, birth of a child, or a death in the family, it’s time to consider your beneficiary designations. Fidelity’s Online Beneficiaries Service, offers a straightforward, convenient process that takes just minutes. To make your elections, click on the “Profile & Settings” icon in the upper right-hand corner, then select “Beneficiaries” and follow the online instructions.