At least not Rutgers, UMich, Georgia Tech and UMD (we asked and received written confirmation). If in doubt, best to ask each school about their requirements for non-need merit awards .
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Ok I found this and I hope this is accurate:
How do I report my pension on CSS Profile?
Payments to tax-deferred pension and retirement savings plans (paid directly or withheld from earnings) include amounts reported on your W-2 form in box 12a through 12d (codes D, E, F, G, H, and S). The amounts must be reported on your FAFSA and Profileā¢ as untaxed income.
Well, yesāand I donāt think Iāve ever said any different.
But to simply assume that because most donāt require the FAFSA for non-need merit aid because most donāt, thatās dangerous.
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Actually scratch that. I didnāt delete because that info IS important for a different section showing your contributions directly found on your W2.
But I found a Q & A with my issue. It doesnāt fully solve my pension problem but does tell me it is more for checking that things match up with income and retirement so nothing gets a red flag. So Iāll likely have to estimate my pension worth and hope that is acceptable.
Q:
Hello!
Iām filling out the CSS profile and Iām stuck on this part:
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, 501Ā©*
Iām looking at my W-2 forms and thereās a number for this under box 12a. Can I input this value, or does it need to be a cumulative value of all of the money we have in our retirement plans?
Basically, I just donāt know what values to input into this section, or where even to find those values other than the W-2.
If someone could sum up this question in terms that are as simple as possible, I would be so grateful.
A:
Current value is the balance in these accounts. The amount on your w2 form is your contribution. That is not what this question is asking.
It wants to know the actual value of the retirement accounts as of the date you file.
You may have gotten a quarterly statement at the end of Septemberā¦or you can look for these account balances online.
As an FYI. Itās not probable that the colleges will use those in your financial aid calculation. It is thought that this question is there to see if the balances in tax deferred retirement accounts align with income. For example, if you have millions of dollars in their retirement accounts, and very little actual incomeā¦someone might wonder how that is possible.
If you are talking about a traditional final salary employer pension then you only need to report your own contributions (if any) not those made by the employer. Incidentally this is a great boon for self-employed individuals with their own C corporation who use an SEP IRA since thatās an employer contribution not a salary deferral.
And I donāt think there is a current balance to report for any of the categories mentioned above (unless youāve made contributions to other plans).
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Acceptance rate for ED applicants is 51.2%. They make up 22.5%of the freshman class.
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Re FASFA and CSS, you may be surprised to find you are eligible for something. We did qualify for āWork Studyā which is a nice bonus along with the merit aid. Which reminds meā¦both my kids applied, interviewed and secured campus jobs remotely before leaving home. Early bird gets a better pick! Just remember to send them with I-9 Docs (Passport or Driverās License and Social Security Card typically).
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Yes itās a traditional pension plan through NYS Teacherās Retirement System. I did report my yearly contributions found on my W2 in a previous section, under āsalary and earningsā I believe. So I think for the parent retirement section, I only report my TSA (401K) total value? Or you are saying I may not need to report that either? I donāt have any of the other options listed. Wow-this is SUPER helpful! Thank you so much!
Yes I think thatās correct.
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we have the same thing re: pension. There is absolutely no number associated with the pension, because the company holds it; its not personal. No way to look up values online. No quarterly statements, no account. Just a guarantee that it will be there upon retirement. Because we do not own it, nor is it in our name we did not include it; also because we have no idea on worth.
And for FAFSA - we have a code number DD and C in the 12a-12d boxes; but DD and C are not the codes required. I remember being very stuck with this a few years ago when we filled out the CSS. the few times weāve filled out the fafsa we left that section blank.
(and it doesnt matter for us honestly as 2/3 kids didnt take out any loans; and no gift aid was offered and no css school acceptances. but as i mentioned above, contemplating loans for this upcoming year).
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Yes, it really wouldnāt make sense to randomly assign a value to my pension when I donāt get quarterly statements and there is no known āworthā to it. For the income requested, we have 12a & 12b numbers on our W2. I assume they add that to our income, so wonāt work in our favor. The FAFSA was a piece of cake compared to the CSS. Thanks for your input, makes me feel like Iām on the right track here.
As for our 401K, my husband took out a small loan from his during Covid. Would he subtract the loan amount from the total value on his statement? Anyone know?
I think what colleges care about for financial aid purpose is that you werenāt making enormous contributions (deductible or not) to your retirement plans to hide your assets. They also want to make sure that you wonāt be making new contributions to those plans while receiving financial aid. In your case, the value of your pension plan doesnāt really matter. Any reasonable estimate will do.
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<<They also want to make sure that you wonāt be making new contributions to those plans while receiving financial aid>>
Do they seriously expect us to stop funding the 401k? Or are you saying they donāt expect additional/higher levels of contribution? I ask b/c Iām doing the max, plus age 50+ catchup (as I didnāt have a 401 until about 15 years ago)ā¦I really donāt want to stop funding it!
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I work for a company that has a traditional, old-fashioned pension. They provide info and projections based on current salary and future contributions (from the company) along with a variety of scenarios (age at disbursement, type of disbursement), so that we can anticipate how much the pension will be worth. That is not the current worth, but the future value. But they do also provide the current value of the pension.
If your company truly provides no visibility to your future pension benefits, how in the world do you make retirement plans? I suggest getting in touch with your benefits administrator and asking some questions.
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I think there is absolutely a āworthā to it. I worked for a joint venture between two companies, both of which actually had pensions. When the joint venture ended, the company who held our pensions rolled our accrued benefits (all company provided) into a retirement account as a lump sum payout.
My point is, pensions are not some magic money that suddenly appears when you retire. You accrue money in your pension based on salary and length of service to the company and the value of your pension increases over time.
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i suppose i was a little overly dramatic! i think pension here is like yours; defined benefit; you can take several options depending on your age, pay scale is based on your last job in company, chose if you want it to cover you through life, or you and spouse through end of life, etc. So certainly there is a yearly range that we know about. but no set determined overall value as of now.
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Technically you can still fund your retirement plans, but any contributions you make to those plans will be added back to your incomes for the purpose of calculating your kidsā financial aid. So effectively, the colleges expect you to fund your kidsā higher education before contributing to your retirement plans.
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Which is another way of saying that collegesā funding models are at least within shouting distance of evil.
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Not just the colleges. The federal government also expects you to prioritize your kidsā higher education over your retirement plan. FAFSA is done the same way as CSS, unfortunately.
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I donāt think so. FAFSA doesnāt count your retirement contributions in coming up with EFC.
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