Exhibit 4 - File Format Specifications.xlsx

ACTIVE

ACTUARY ANNUAL VALUATION RECORD LAYOUT (ACTIVE)

RECORD SIZE = 500 BLOCK SIZE = 50000 RECORD FORMAT = FIXED

F = Female 9 = Unknown (automatic enrollment record (AA or AI status code))

X = Identifies records where service credit is accrued as 10 months equal to one year in a 12 month system.

For Teachers' Systems and 10-month designated Employees' Systems members, service reported in months must be converted applying a 10-month year.

- < 6500

- > 6500 and 3rd and 4th position of the employer location = 07,17 & 50.

- Finance Division to provide listing of PGU's

- withdrawn employers : Included in State Pool, finance provides the list, of withdrawn prior to 6/30/97 and also by law location codes 6730 and 6627 75 77 3 PT-% D-PRT-TIME 999 Shows the budgeted percentage of time for the position being reported if worked less than full-time (100%). Full time members are reported as "100" Example: "050" represents 50% of full-time, "100" full-time.

See "Option Updates" (worksheet tab)

Note: Legislation prohibits transfers from Employees' and Teachers' Retirement system to the Employees' and Teachers' Pension system after 12/31/2004.

(Example 7% = 0700). See DEFINITION OF SYSTEM/PLAN CODES (worksheet tab)

Retirement Systems (4% a year):

- Systems 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, or G (all plan codes)

- System 6 with a plan code 5, 6, J, K, R, or S

- System 7 with a plan code 1, 2, 5, 6, J, K, R, or S Pension Systems (5% a year)

- System 6 with a plan code 7, 8 or L, P

- System 7 with a plan code space, 7, 8 or L, M, N, P

- System 9 (all plan codes)

- System H (all plan codes)

The agency maintains two separate annualized salaries referred to as the "Actual Annual Compensation (actual)" and the "Annual Earnable Compensation (full-time)". For full-time employees these salaries are the same. However, for part-time employees the "Actual Annual Compensation" represents their actual budgeted annual salary, while the "Annual Earnable Compensation" represents the budgeted annual salary for an equivalent full-time position.

For funding purposes the Actual Annual Compensation is applicable. For benefit calculation purposes the Annual Earnable Compensation is only applicable to Pension Systems.

See DEFINITION SYSTEM/PLAN CODES (worksheet tab).

See DEFINITION SYSTEM/PLAN CODES (worksheet tab).

383 385 3 AFT SER-TOT (TOTAL AFTER/BIFURCATED TIER SERVICE) D-TOT-CRED-SER-AFT 999 Represents the total of the AFT (After/Bifurcated) service fields.

Note: prior record layout included a prior service after field but there was no data ever provided. Field eliminated from current record layout.

See DEFINITION SYSTEM/PLAN CODES (worksheet tab).

See DEFINITION SYSTEM/PLAN CODES (worksheet tab).

Eligibility service credit is only separately reported for Pension System accounts. For the Pension Systems eligibility service is measured in years and months. A member that works at least 500 hours (eligibility service prior to 7/01/1998 is based on at least 700 hours) in any fiscal year (July 1 to June 30) will be credited with one year of eligibility service. If a member completes less than 500 hours of employment, in the first and last fiscal year of employment, eligibility service is prorated based on the number of hours worked as compared to the 500 hours standard times the applicable work year (10/12 months).

For pension system member's subject to the contributory, or alternate contributory, or reformed contributory pension benefit who complete less than 500 hours of employment in any fiscal year (other than the first and last FY), eligibility service is prorated based on the number of hours worked as compared to the 500 hours standard times the applicable work year (10/12 months). (Pension Systems include Teachers’/Employees’ Pension Systems, Law Enforcement Officers Pension System, and Local Fire and Police System).

For non-contributory pension system ((system 7, plan code "space" and "N") and system "H" (all plan codes)) member's subject to the non-contributory benefit , if the member works less than 351 hours, then they earn no service credit (creditable & eligiblity) in that fiscal year. If the member works 351 hours through 499 hours, although they do not receive creditable or eligibility service, they do not accrue a break in service months. When the member's break in service months equal their previously accrued service that is moved to the "Lost" service fields during the fiscal year a break occurs (< 351 hours), membership ends, and all service is lost..

For Retirement Systems eligibility service credit equals the sum of all service fields. Retirement System records do not reflect eligibility service credit.

425 427 3 SERV-TRANS (TRANSFERRED SERVICE) D-TRANS-SVC 999 Memorandum only and represents the total service credit posted to the account as of the date of transfer into the pension system which is already reflected in the membership service months totals for certain members enrolled prior to 1980.

Note: Legislation prohibits transfers from Employees' and Teachers' Retirement system to the Employees' and Teachers' Pension system after 12/31/2004.

RETIRED

ACTUARY ANNUAL VALUATION RECORD LAYOUT (RETIRED)

RECORD SIZE = 600 BLOCK SIZE = 6000 RECORD FORMAT = FIXED

F = Female

X = Identifies records where service credit is accrued as 10 months equal to one year in a 12 month system.

For Teachers' Systems and 10-month designated Employees' Systems members, service reported in months must be converted applying a 10-month year.

- < 6500

- > 6500 and 3rd and 4th position of the employer location = 07,17 & 50.

- Finance Division to provide listing of PGU's

- withdrawn employers that are included in State pool, and by statute location codes 6627 and 6730 belong in State pool

R - Retired - Retired member includes DRO’s for which the retirement benefit allowance is allocated between the retiree and alternate payee (DRO) records. (DRO accounts identified by an "R" status with the original retiree social security number reflected in positions 70 - 78). At death of the retiree, the DRO payments cease without any beneficiary protection.

RB - Retired Beneficiary – Beneficiary of a dual-life annuity; For the State Police, Judges, Legislators and Law Enforcement Officer's Pension Systems the law mandates that if their is a surviving spouse or minor children that the basic allowance (Option 00) provides for continuation of dual life payments. For other systems refer to the "Option Codes - retiree's" worksheet tab.

RI - Retired Suspended - Identifies DROP participants in systems 3, 8 and 9. (SRA identifies as an RI status with a "Z" or "S" in the FLAG field). "RI" status code also represents other records in a suspended state for various reasons.

67 67 1 RETIREMENT TYPE UP-TYPE-RETIRE X Defines the retirement type for an account:

S = Service – Includes normal service, early service and vested.

U = Unclassified and certain elected/appointed officials - Special early (16 year rule) (§22-404;§23-404) W = Widow – Spouse Law Death benefit annuity, member dies while in active service, spouse named as sole beneficiary and meets spouse law eligibility requirements for plan.

D = Ordinary Disability A = Accidental or Special Disability (State Police)

F = Female

Exception - For system 3 (State Police) the voluntary annuity field is used to report the benefit adjustment amount applicable to individuals with a retirement date prior to 7/1/99 (see §24-401(e)). At death, the surviving spouse continues to receive the special benefit adjustment without reduction. See DEFINITION OF SYSTEM/PLAN CODES (worksheet tab).

Additional annuity funded by voluntary contributions under the tax-sheltered plan in the 1970’s and 80’s.

See DEFINITION OF SYSTEM/PLAN CODES (worksheet tab)

See DEFINITION OF SYSTEM/PLAN CODES (worksheet tab)

See DEFINITION OF SYSTEM/PLAN CODES (worksheet tab)

See DEFINITION OF SYSTEM/PLAN CODES (worksheet tab)

As its numerator, the Consumer Price Index for the calendar year ending December 31 of the preceding fiscal year; and as its denominator, the Consumer Price Index for the calendar year ending December 31, 1998 (488.3).

Effective FY 2013, the SRA moved the Monthly Tier 2 CPI Amount from Bifurcated Cost of Living Adjustment (BIF-CL) field to its own field - State Police Cost of Living Adjustment (SP-CL) to support year end tax reporting purposes for Accidental Disability Retirees.

For Retirement Systems eligibility service credit equals the sum of all service fields.

Effective with the FY2012 valuation file, SRA combines the eligibility credit of all system 1,2,6 or 7 records excluding CORS updating the combined total to the retirement record..

See CPI FACTOR (worksheet tab) 565 565 1 CPI-C (CPI FLAG) UP-CPI-CODE X If a ' 1' is present in the CPI Flag field then COLA is not calculated by the system.

Typical accounts with a ' 1 ' in the COLA flag are:

- Systems 4 and Systems 5 have a '1' in the CPI flag because their increases are based on salary increases of current Judges or Legislators.

- MD School for Deaf accounts have a "1" in the CPI Flag field due to a reporting issue

- Accounts established DRO's have a '1' since it is dependent on the court order if COLA applies. If COLA applies both the retiree account and the ex-spouse account have a '1' because the COLA must be calculated manually.

- Accounts that exceed the IRC 415 limit will have a '1' placed in the CPI CODE to prevent the calculation of COLA. These accounts must be review individually each year.

Individuals' with an Abolished Flag = A will have incentive credit. See I/PROJ description above.

'E' - Identifies a beneficiary receiving a benefit resulting from the loss of a public safety officer’s life in the line of duty, a value of ‘E’ in the FLAG field will signal the tax programs to report the annual annuity benefit as tax-free.

'J' - § 25-401.1 Establishes an early service retirement benefit for Baltimore City jail employees.

'L' - Identifies the account has a lien.

'S' - Identifies individual with multiple flags. Requires manual research although generally a DROP participant who also has a lien on their account.

'T' - This code was used on the active file to identify individuals in the retirement system that were no longer eligible to receive a special transfer rate under a statutory terminated program, met termination rules so only eligible to receive the straight 4% if transferring. Carry over from the active file, no impact on the retired file. Note: Legislation prohibits transfers from Employees' and Teachers' Retirement system to the Employees' and Teachers' Pension system after 12/31/2004.

'Z' - Identifies a DROP participant.

576 600 25 Filler Filler X(25)