CRONA Area Rep and Membership Meeting Minutes July 3 & 5, 2007
CRONA
Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement
Area Representatives and Membership Meetings
July 3 and 5, 2007
This is the second in a series of educational topics that will be addressed in our monthly minutes.
RETIREMENT and TAX DEFERRED ANNUNITY (TDA) PLANS:
In a Nutshell
RETIREMENT PLAN
Your Retirement Plan consists of: 1) 5% hospital automatic contribution, plus 2) your contribution, plus 3) up to 4% hospital matching contribution.
5% Hospital Automatic Contribution. SHC/LPCH automatically deposits an amount equal to 5% of pension eligible earnings into your retirement plan each pay period. Pension eligible earnings consist of your regular wages, shift differentials (includes PTO/ATO), PTO cash out (no differential), straight time portion of your overtime and holiday pay, educational hours, committee meetings and mandatory training (includes ORT).
Hospital Matching Contribution. The hospital will match your contributions dollar-for dollar up to 4% of your pension eligible earnings each pay period. You have to contribute in order to receive this matching.
Simplified Example:
| SHC/LPCH hospital automatic contribution | 5% | 5% | 5% | 5% | 5% |
Your maximum contribution |
4% | 3% | 2% | 1% | 0 |
SHC/LPCH matching contribution |
4% | 3% | 2% | 1% | 0 |
TOTAL RETIREMENT SAVED |
13% | 11% | 9% | 7% | 5% |
If your pension eligible earnings per year is $80,000 your total savings in dollars are |
$10,400 | $8,800 | $7,200 | $5,600 | $4,000 |
In 5 years, your total savings in dollars are |
$52,000 | $44,000 | $36,000 | $28,000 | $20,000 |
Note: Total savings in 5 years as calculated in this example do not include the interest you would have gained from your savings. The actual value of your savings depends on the funds you select.
If you have 15 or more years of retirement eligible service SHC/LPCH will match up to 6% of your contribution. With maximum matching you can save up to 17%.
General Information Related to Your Retirement Plan
You are eligible to participate in the Retirement Plan after you have been employed as a Staff Nurse for at least 40 hours per pay period for 12 consecutive months (excludes Relief RNs).
One month before you are eligible to receive contributions, Benefits will send you an enrollment package. Return the package and indicate what % you want to contribute.
You get to choose whether your contribution comes out of your pay before or after taxes (pre tax reduces the taxes you pay now, whole after tax reduces the tax you pay when you retire).
You must choose either Fidelity or TIAA-CREF as an investment company.
If you do not return the enrollment form, SHC/LPCH will deposit the 5% hospital automatic contribution each pay period into a default fund, Fidelity Freedom Funds, until you indicate otherwise.
Withdrawals from the retirement plan are not permitted while you are still working at SHC/LPCH.
Your retirement plan is vested, which means that when your employment stops or you die, you or your beneficiary may take your account balance (refer to Benefits Handbook Booklet G for more details by logging on to eConnect).
If you are an employee who elected to stay with the Staff Pension Plan (SPP) in 1997, contact the Benefits Office for details of your plan.
*TAX DEFERRED ANNUITY (TDA)*
The TDA plan is voluntary.
Regular and all Relief RNs may enroll.
You can enroll at the beginning of any pay period following your hire date.
To enroll, decide how much you want to save, choose an investment company and, submit an enrollment form to the Benefits Office.
SHC/LPCH does not contribute to the TDA.
If you have retirement accounts from another employer, you may roll the funds into your TDA account.
You contribute on a pre tax basis only.
You can withdraw your account balance while still working at SHC/LPCH in any of the following ways:
1. Loans: You may borrow for any reason if your TDA plan balance is $2,000 or more (not recommended because you end up paying taxes twice and lose years of compounding on the dollar).
2. Hardship Withdrawals: You can request a hardship withdrawal. These are subject to strict limitations by the IRS Code.
3. Other withdrawals: you reach 59 ½ years of age, you are no longer an employee, or you die.
We urge you to maximize your contributions to the Retirement Plan before enrolling in or increasing your contributions to the TDA plan. In doing so, you will fully benefit from the SHC/LPCH matching plan.
We also encourage you to maximize your TDA contributions.
In addition, it is beneficial for you to visit the Satellite Benefits Office located on the ground floor at SHC. A Benefit Specialist is available to answer your questions about your retirement plan. You can also email benefits@stanfordmed.org.
Sunny Balson,
CRONA Secretary