Retirement Plan

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
Monday, December 9, 2024 8am - 4pm	Burwell Center, Room 126
Friday, January 17, 2025   8am - 4pm	Burwell Center, Room 126
Friday, January 31, 2025   8am - 4pm	Burwell Center, Room 126
Thursday, February 6, 2025   8am - 4pm	Burwell Center, Room 126
Monday, February 24, 2025   8am - 4pm	Burwell Center, Room 126
Tuesday, March 11, 2025   8am - 4pm	Burwell Center, Room 126
Thursday, March 20, 2025   8am - 4pm	Burwell 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:

• Go to the Benefits Forms Page
• Please complete the "Retirement Plan Participation Waiver of Service" form and email it to benefits@du.edu.

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 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:

• DU/TIAA Update Video
• TIAA - DU Retirement Website