CSS PROFILE STRUGGLE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENT

Paying for College
1

There is a question on the CSS profile that I don’t understand.

When the CSS wants to know about what retirement plans my parents participate in I just put “other type of retirement plan” because we don’t have the ones as in the United States.

But then the CSS REQUIRES me to answer this question where I have to write:

Current value of tax-deferred retirement, pension, annuity, and savings plans such as an IRA, Keogh, SEP, 401(a), 401(k), 403(b), 408, 457, 501©

the problem is: WE DO NOT HAVE THESE PLANS, nor my dad knows what he will get as a monthly pension (he will retire in like 10 years and nobody can tell how much he will get then)

he could make a very very rough estimate, would that be okay?
should the rough estimate be GROSS or NET?

is the question actually asking me how much my dad will get monthly as pension?

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP

2

They don’t want to know your dad’s future pension amount. They want to know the dollar value of the accounts.

Is your dad a public employee or is he working for a company or himself?

If a company or himself, he might have access to the account balances.

3

In the US, there are two broad classes of plans:

traditional pension plans, where your eventual monthly pension plan is determined by some formula based on your salary during the time you were employed;

or,

defined contribution plans (“Current value of tax-deferred retirement, pension, annuity, and savings plans such as an IRA, Keogh, SEP, 401(a), 401(k), 403(b), 408, 457, 501©”) where the recipient actually “owns” the current cash value of the plans.

The question is asking whether your parents currently participate in any pension plan where they “own” the assets which were purchased with pre-tax income, and what the current value of those assets are, if they have such assets.

4

my dad is in the military (so here it is considered public employee) and the government will give him pension, he does not own any assets.

Therefore, since he does not participates in these defined contribution plans what could we put? Should we put 0?

thank you again guys you are really saving me the day before the deadline hahahah

5

my dad is in the military (so here it is considered public employee) and the government will give him pension, he does not own any assets.

Therefore, since he does not participates in these defined contribution plans what could we put? Should we put 0?

thank you again guys you are really saving me the day before the deadline hahahah

6

If he left his job today, what would his pension be at retirement? So the contributions are not defined, but benefits might be. Or not. In some private situations, there is no guarantee that the defined benefits package exists if the company folds etc. Is his pension guaranteed even if he left today? Is this a stable country?

7

@Sybylla

The Profile question wants to know the value of the retirement account…not what the retirement benefit will be when it is drawn.

As noted above, this would be for accounts where the parent is the owner of the account, and usually it does not apply to public pensions…as those are mandatory contribution accounts and not optional.

I would contact profile via email and ask. I’m not sure what military would do, but I do know the balance in my state teachers retirement which was mandatory for public school teachers did not have to be reported.

8

0 since it’s not an account.

It’s likely a Repartition system v. Capitalization system - your father contributes now to the pensions of current officers and future officers will contribute to his.

Is your country politically and financially stable (ie., Is it in a troubled area of the world? In th EU/EEA…?)