Retirement Plan

Quick Links to Page Sections:

About this Page

The University of Denver offers a retirement plan under section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), enabling you to invest in your retirement via the convenience of regular automatic payroll contributions. The plan is administered by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) and participation is entirely voluntary. It also includes a Roth option.

Contributions are made on a pre-tax or tax-deferred salary reduction basis, which means your current taxable income is reduced by the amount of your contributions, and taxes on those contributions and their investment earnings are deferred until they are paid back to you in the form of retirement benefits or other distributions from these plans. For biweekly-paid employees, retirement contributions will be deducted from each paycheck.

 

Visit our DU TIAA Website

Click Here

Plan Enrollment & TIAA Consultations

DU employees can open an account and manage their retirement plan through the DU Retirement TIAA website starting on their hire date. Contributions can be adjusted at any time through your online TIAA account. For enrollment questions call TIAA customer service at 800-842-2252.

DU employees are eligible to meet with financial professionals from the University’s retirement plan service provider, TIAA for FREE one-on-one financial consultations held on campus. An employee does not need to be a participant of the 403(b) Plan in order to utilize this service. This is a free service, as a part of your DU Benefits package.

University of Denver

 

Date

Room Location

Tuesday, September 10, 8am – 4pm

Burwell Center, Room 126

Tuesday, September 24, 8am – 4pm

Burwell Center, Room 126

Tuesday, October 8, 8am - 4pm

Burwell Center, Room 126

Monday, October 21, 8am - 4pm

Burwell Center, Room 126

Wednesday, November 6, 8am - 4pm

Burwell Center, Room 126

Tuesday, November 19, 8am - 4pmBurwell Center, Room 126
Monday, December 9, 8am - 4pmBurwell Center, Room 126

To schedule an appointment, employees can call TIAA at 1-800-732-8353 or click here to register. Please note if you sign up as a Guest, the times listed will be in Eastern Standard Time - so please adjust accordingly.

Employees may also speak to a financial consultant on the phone by calling 1-800-842-2252 Monday through Friday from 6am to 8pm or Saturdays 7am to 4pm.

For more information, please contact Jeremy Thompson at jeremy.thompson@tiaa.org or 303.607.2265.

Employer Match Feature

Employer Match Amount

DU will match your 4 percent contributions to this plan with an 8 percent match, for a combined contribution equal to 12 percent of your appointed salary. Vesting of the match dollars is immediate at 100 percent upon enrollment.

Eligibility

Appointed employees are eligible to enroll in the employer match feature of the retirement plan at any time after completing one year of service with the University or another qualified educational institution. This service requirement is defined as one year of service in a retirement benefit eligible position. A qualified educational institution, per IRC Section 170(b)(1)(A)(ii), is defined as an educational organization that "normally maintains a regular faculty and curriculum and normally has a regularly enrolled body of pupils or students in attendance at the place where its educational activities are regularly carried on."

If you are eligible to waive the one-year service requirement for the employer match feature:

Requirements for Employer Match Feature

To participate in the employer match feature under this plan, you must contribute 4 percent of your appointed salary to your account. These contributions may be directed into a wide array of investment options available through TIAA. Additional contributions via the employer match feature are not permitted.

ERISA Required Documents

ERISA Required Documents

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) requires retirement plan administrators to provide participants and beneficiaries, in writing, the most important facts they need to know about their retirement and health benefit plans. These facts include plan rules, financial information, and documents on the operation and management of the plan.

One of the most important documents participants are entitled to receive automatically when becoming a participant of an ERISA-covered retirement plan, or a beneficiary receiving benefits under such a plan, is a summary of the plan called the Summary Plan Description or SPD. Under the terms of ERISA, this document must be made available to participants and beneficiaries at least once every five years, free of charge.

You may request a copy of the SPD and/or SMM in paper form at no charge to you. Please contact Stephanie Trujillo at 303-871-3549 or Stephanie.Trujillo@du.edu if you would like a paper copy of these documents.

Review links to retirement plan documents below.

Retirement Plan Documents

Summary Plan Description

The Summary Plan Description (SPD) is a detailed guide to the benefits the program provides and how the plan works. It specifies when an employee may begin to participate in the plan and how to file a claim for benefits. If the plan is changed, participants must be informed via either a revised SPD or a separate document called a Summary of Material Modifications (SMM). These documents must be provided to participants free of charge.

The Retirement Plan Document

The Plan Document governs the retirement plan's features and day-to-day operations.

Summary of Material Modifications

The Summary of Material Modifications (SMM) is a summary of the most important changes to the plan and information contained in the Summary Plan Description. Changes include in-plan Roth rollover contributions and employer matching contributions.

Retirement Plan Updates

New Expense Allocation Method

Effective October 1, 2020, general plan administrative services expenses (including record keeping, investment advisory, and legal) will be allocated to each participant account on a pro rata basis. This administrative expense will be deducted or netted from plan expense offsets in quarterly installments from your assets within the core lineup of investment options in the plan. The total fee will equate to approximately a $0.72 annual charge for every $1,000 in your account, but may vary based on factors such as plan expenses and market conditions. Each quarter your online account and statements will itemize the amount charged to your account, the amount of any net revenue sharing received from your mutual fund investments, and the net plan services expense offsets earned in your annuity investments.

Please know that there have always been costs to participate in the retirement plan. You have not seen an explicit charge before because these charges had been bundled within the annual operating expense ratios of the investments. Under the new arrangement, your cost to participate in the plan will be more visible, straightforward, and equitable across all investments.

Fees help ensure that, regardless of the investments selected, all plan participants share in the cost of retirement plan administration. As you plan your financial goals, keep in mind that fees are just one factor in the decision-making process.

For more information visit the links below:

Contact

 

TIAA Retirement Plan