USC Retirement Savings Program
Effective July 1, 2007, USC offers a single retirement plan for faculty and staff, rather than maintaining two separate plans based on employee classification. In addition, the university now has a sliding scale for both the employee contributions and the university's contributions to provide more flexibility and choice for your retirement planning.
The USC Retirement Savings Program is designed to help the university's faculty and staff build, and maximize, their retirement income. Retirement income is based on the amount of funds contributed to your retirement account adjusted by any earnings, expenses, gains or losses. Vesting of both employee and university contributions is immediate. When you retire, you can choose benefit payments from a broad range of payment options.
Contributions are invested by your choice of companies selected by the university to manage the investment of the retirement plan contributions. Each company offers a wide variety of investment options:
Fidelity Investments
Prudential Retirement
TIAA-CREF
Vanguard
Who's eligible?
After completing six months of employment in which you have worked at least 500 hours, you are eligible if you are:
- A faculty member
- A staff member, regardless of classification—except for Local 11 union employees who are not eligible at this time
- At least 21 years of age
Cost
Under the retirement program, you can choose the percentage of your pretax earnings you want to contribute and the university will match your contribution. Although the university encourages you to maximize your retirement savings and participate at the highest possible level, if you decide you are not able to contribute to your retirement plan, USC will still contribute 5%. You may increase or decrease your contribution level at any time. Following is the sliding scale for university and employee contributions:
USC will contribute 10% toward an employee's 5% contribution.
USC will contribute 9% toward an employee's 4% contribution.
USC will contribute 8% toward an employee's 3% contribution.
USC will contribute 7% toward an employee's 2% contribution.
USC will contribute 6% toward an employee's 1% contribution.
What do I need to do?
You will need to choose from among the university-selected companies to manage your retirement savings and direct how your funds are invested. You also need to designate your beneficiaries. Your benefits office is here to help you complete the necessary forms. If you do not complete the forms before you are eligible for coverage, a retirement account will be established for you under the plan's default provisions—the 10% USC contribution/5% employee contribution level and investment in the Vanguard Target Retirement Fund most appropriate for your estimated retirement age (assuming a retirement age of 65). However, you can change these selections at any time, effective with the next pay period.
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| Enroll |
Coverage starts |
Change or cancel |
| During your first six months of employment |
Contributions begin the pay period after you complete the eligibility requirements. |
You may change your contribution level at any time, as well as your investment funds and company. |
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When can I make changes?
You can change your investment allocation at any time. You also can transfer monies between companies and between investment funds at any time, subject to limitations on the frequency and amount of transfers set by the investment and insurance companies.
Questions?
Brochures about the retirement program and the wide range of investment options are available from your benefits office. Extensive information is available from each of the participating companies online.
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