<p>Question PD-175A on the CSS PROFILE application asks about the value of tax-deferred investments. According to the instructions, for "defined benefit pension plan values, use the most recent account statement received from the plan that report the current net worth." My defined pension does not provide a net worth value on the account statement. It only reports what the pension will pay yearly after retirement (based on current length of service and salary). I contacted the administrator and they are unable to provide a current net worth for any individual. </p>
<p>So here's my question - how have others valued an employer-provided defined benefit pension? I suppose I could do some present value calculations for an annuity starting at my projected retirement date, but that seems like a lot of work ...</p>
<p>I have the same problem, so I left it out. Only included my 401K data. The statement in the Help box (below) made me feel the info was not that significant. I could request an early buyout calculation but I have no intention of doing that for this exercise. If you want, you can add a note at the end of the application stating your situation. There is a place for comments.</p>
<p>“This information is not used in the calculation the College Board sends to your school, although some schools may use it when determining the overall financial strength of your family.”</p>
<p>Can anyone enlighten me if there is a threshold on the dollar amount of your portfolio? Mine consists of stocks that go up and down. Does a school base the amount of monies they will give you on this portfolio information?</p>
<p>mikes9, I have a State pension and husband a military one. I asked about these on CC recently and did not include them in my answer to question re value of plans. I receive a statement of my contributions to my State pension, but that’s it. We have no way to answer the question.</p>
<p>Please help me. How much I should input in the 401K and even other value like Stocks etc.</p>
<p>For example if I have $100K in 401K, should I mention as 100K. Or if I withdraw today, I will have to pay tax of 35%, so I should rather mention 65K ?</p>
<p>Same question I also have in case of Stocks, Home Value etc. The value on paper could be something and the value if I were to cash the asset could be something else, due to taxes, commissions and so on.</p>
<p>I believe they want statement value. If you are audited by the financial aid office (which must be done for a certain percentage of people each year), they will want to see a statement.</p>
<p>In any case, the current value doesn’t matter for retirement accounts because they are not considered for financial aid purposes. It has to be reported, but it won’t affect anything. The colleges only care how much money you put into retirement accounts during the current year, to make sure it is counted as family income. Current contributions to retirement accounts are considered to be discretionary.</p>