Should I take the UCRP Lump Sum Cashout or the monthly retirement income?
You may elect one or the other, not both. The Lump Sum Cashout is a single payment approximating the present value of the lifetime monthly income you would otherwise receive, including expected cost-of-living adjustments. The tradeoff is not only the money: electing the lump sum gives up the UCRP $7,500 death benefit, and accrued sick leave hours convert to UCRP service credit only for members who elect the monthly benefit. The right answer depends on your health and longevity expectations, whether a spouse needs survivor income, your other assets, and the tax year the lump sum would land in. Run the comparison against your full balance sheet before you elect, because the election is irrevocable.
What is the difference between CalSTRS 2% at 60 and CalSTRS 2% at 62?
Your structure is determined by whether you were first hired before January 1, 2013 (2% at 60) or on or after that date (2% at 62). The "2%" is the share of final compensation you earn for each year of service credit at the benchmark age. Under 2% at 62, the age factor reaches 2% at age 62, falls to 1.16% if you retire at 55, and rises to a maximum of 2.4% at age 65. That structure also uses a three-year final compensation period — the highest average annual compensation over 36 consecutive months. A member under 2% at 62 who retires at 60 receives a lower age factor than a 2% at 60 member retiring at the same age, so identical careers can produce materially different pensions.
Can I contribute to both a 403(b) and a 457(b) as a California professor?
Yes, and this is one of the most underused advantages in academic compensation. The 403(b) and the 457(b) carry separate contribution limits, so using both effectively doubles the amount you can shelter from current income tax each year. Many UC and CSU employees contribute to only one because they assume the limits are shared. If you are in your peak earning years and facing California state income tax on top of federal, funding both plans is often the single largest tax lever available to you.
What is TIAA Traditional and why can I not withdraw all of it at once?
TIAA Traditional is an annuity contract, not a mutual fund, and the version held inside your employer plan determines your liquidity. Some contracts allow a lump sum withdrawal; others require the balance be paid out over a fixed schedule of years, commonly a series of annual installments. The guaranteed interest rate is the reason for the restriction — you are being paid for accepting limited liquidity. The practical consequence is that a retirement income plan built on the assumption that this balance is immediately available can fail on contract terms alone. Read the specific contract before you plan around the number on the statement.
I worked at more than one California institution. Do my pensions combine?
Not automatically, but reciprocity between California public retirement systems may let service under CalPERS, CalSTRS and certain other systems work together — often allowing your highest compensation from one system to be applied when calculating the benefit from another. Each system pays its own separate benefit; reciprocity affects how those benefits are calculated, not who pays them. The elections are time-sensitive and depend on how quickly you moved between systems, so a career that crossed a UC campus, a CSU campus and a community college district needs the sequence mapped before you retire, not after.
When should a professor consider Roth conversions?
Frequently in the window between retiring and the start of Social Security and required minimum distributions. Academic careers often produce a period of unusually low taxable income in those years, followed by a sharp rise once a pension, Social Security and RMDs all begin at once. Converting during the low-income window can move money into a Roth at a lower bracket than it would otherwise face for the rest of your life. The analysis has to be multi-year and account for California state tax, Medicare IRMAA thresholds, and the size of your future RMDs. Optimizing this year's refund in isolation is how people end up paying more over a lifetime.
Does my UC pension get capped if I am a high earner?
It can. Internal Revenue Code Section 415(b) limits the retirement benefit payable from a qualified plan like UCRP in a calendar year, which can affect long-tenured faculty and clinicians who earned high incomes. UC established the 415(m) Restoration Plan to restore the benefit that would otherwise be lost to that limit. Restoration Plan benefits above a threshold amount are paid in equal payments over 120 months rather than as a single sum, which is a cash flow detail worth planning around rather than discovering at retirement.
How do I know if my 403(b) vendor is charging too much?
Look for three things: the expense ratios of the underlying investments, any separate administrative or wrap fee charged by the vendor, and whether the product is an annuity carrying surrender charges. In K-12 and community college districts especially, employees often have a long list of approved vendors with sharply different costs, and the highest-cost options are frequently the most actively marketed on campus. A one percent annual difference in cost, compounded across a thirty-year career, is a very large number. The comparison is worth doing once, carefully.