Supplemental Retirement Accounts

 

All faculty members, professional librarians, administrative staff members, Public Safety, Secretarial/Clerical, and Physical Plant members are eligible to contribute to supplemental retirement accounts.

Contributions

IRS regulations allow participants to make tax-deferred contributions from salary to a supplemental retirement account. Wesleyan calls such accounts SRAs (supplemental retirement accounts). Another common name for this type of account is TDA (tax-deferred annuity). Federal and Connecticut income taxes on SRA contributions are deferred until retirement income is paid out.

Vesting

Supplemental retirement contributions vest immediately.

Maximum SRA Contribution

The maximum amount of contributions that can be made to an SRA on a tax-deferred basis is re-calculated each year according to an IRS formula. Human Resources notifies participants of these maximums each year.  The minimum contribution to an SRA is 1% of annual salary.

Investment Options

In addition to the TIAA/CREF and Fidelity investment options available under the basic retirement plan, supplemental retirement contributions may be invested in:

• All of the Fidelity funds (http://www.fidelity.com)
• The Dreyfus Third Century Fund, Inc., similar to CREF's Social Choice Fund (http://www.dreyfus.com)
• All Vanguard funds (http://www.vanguard.com)
• All Scudder funds (http://www.scudder.com)

Starting or Changing SRA Contributions

SRA contributions may be started, canceled, or changed as follows:

• Changes to an SRA during fall open enrollment are effective the following January 1.  Changes made during other times of the year are effective on the next available payperiod of the following month.

More information about investment options and about SRA’s are available from Human Resources.  The SRA enrollment form is available on the web at:  http://www.wesleyan.edu/hr/forms.