Can someone dumb down and explain TRSL and Louisiana employee's retirement options?

Best option for her is to either call Civil Service or talk to her HR Benefits person.

I know State Police and teachers have a different system than the rest of us.

LINK

TRSL webite has lots of information that is easy to understand.
I assume your wife works for a elementary/secondary school system. If so I believe the regular pension is the only option available (not counting "in addition" options such as deferred comp 403(b)?). if she is part of higher education they offer a trsl optional plan that functions like a defined contribution (401k) plan in lieu of defined benefit plan. It is meant to be more portal for employees who dont plan on staying in state.

That is pretty much all I know. enjoy the subsidized health insurance and pension (assuming she sticks it out 20+ years)

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1)TRSL is not optional. They take 8% of every paycheck. 
This will be paid out as a pension after retirement. It sucks for people who actually know what the hell they're doing because I'm pretty sure I would be better off throwing that 8% into the overall market for 30 years. But, most people are unbelievably irresponsible so we need the government to protect us all. I digress. 

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It's alot better than social security though.


ETA:

As for your questions, OP....
TSRL webiste:

Age and years of service for benefits

Benefit options


Basically the way it works is like this:

Your wife contributes 8% salary into her TSRL account every year. This money is hers no matter what. If she leaves the system, they pay her this money.

If your wife stays in the system long enough to become vested, she will eventually have the ability to decide how she wants to receive her benefits.

Since she was hired after 2015, she will get a 2.5% benefit factor on the standard benefit plan.

What this means is when she retires from the system, her number of years in the system are multiplied by 2.5% to find her benefit percentage, i.e. 25% salary per year after 10 years, 50% salary after 20 years, 75% salary after 30 years. If she retires young and wants to draw payments, her payout may be reduced based on her age.

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Regular Plan (2.5% benefit factor):
Age 62 with 5 years of service credit*
Any age with 20 years of service credit* (actuarially reduced)

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What isn't clear to me is if 62 is the new penalty-free age for all years of service. It used to be 30 years of service could draw 75% at any age, so a teacher that entered the system at age 22 could draw 75% at age 52 with no penalty. Now you can draw at 20 years at any age, but the amount will be reduced depending on age (I assume it's a percentage reduction per year under 62 but the site isn't clear).

In any case, if she chooses to take the maximum option (2.5% per year) the payments will stop when she dies. If she chooses an option that allows her to name a beneficiary, her benefit percentage is reduced depending on how much she wants the beneficiary to receive.

She would also be DROP eligible eventually. There can be alot of nuances to how DROP accounts play out but the general idea is that once she's eligible to receive a retirement benefit (i.e. after 20 years or more) she can "retire" from TSRL but still work for the school. She won't be paying 8% in any more, and TSRL will pay her retirement benefit into her DROP account for 3 years.

For example, let's say after 25 years she was making $75,000 and then goes on the DROP. She'll be locked in at a $47,000 retirement benefit but can stay working at her job. TSRL will start paying $47,000 a year into her DROP account, which I believe is invested. After 3 years she can retire and will start receiving her $47,000 retirement directly, and she'll have a DROP account worth $141,000 plus interest.

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Assuming 8% average annual gains, at a salary of $42500 with no raises over your career at a 27.8% contribution rate over 40 years, a teacher would end up with ~$3.1M

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I agree that privately investing the same money would usually outperform what the state pension systems are able to do since by their nature they have to be really conservative, but stretching it out to 40 years puts it somewhat out of proportion IMO. Over 30 years at 8% it would be 1.4 million which would then generate $42,000 on a 3% fixed annuity which is more in line with what the pension systems are doing.

Can someone also dumb down the subsidized retirement health insurance?

We’ve always used my employers insurance as the policy is better but I know that my wife and I can become vested in her policy and carry it through retirement.

I’m not even sure it’s worth it though depending on how long the vesting period is. My insurance is quite a bit cheaper.

Just here to post that pensions need to go away for public workers. Not speaking of Louisiana specifically, but it's time to put them on a 401k type plan, and do a 3%-5% match and be done with it.

Truth

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Can someone also dumb down the subsidized retirement health insurance?

We’ve always used my employers insurance as the policy is better but I know that my wife and I can become vested in her policy and carry it through retirement.

I’m not even sure it’s worth it though depending on how long the vesting period is. My insurance is quite a bit cheaper.

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I'd like some insight on this as well....

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Your wife contributes 8% salary into her TSRL account every year. This money is hers no matter what. If she leaves the system, they pay her this money.

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If she leaves prior to becoming eligible for retirement, say 15 years, does this money earn any interest? Or do they just pay back the straight 8% contributions?

Also, is there a table or anything for actuarial reductions?