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1. What information do I need before using PlanAhead?
PlanAhead estimates your retirement needs and income based on the information you enter. While estimates of the following information may produce a reasonable guide to your retirement needs and income, having recent actual information available will produce more accurate estimates.
Please note that the definition for all of the defined terms can be found in the glossary of "A Guide to the Lay Defined Benefit Plan". The terms are bolded throughout the FAQs.
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Annual earnings (from employment with the Episcopal Church).
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If you participate in The Episcopal Church Lay Employees' Retirement Plan (Lay Defined Benefit Plan), the number of years of Credited Service you have earned in the plan.
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Recent statements from your savings, investment and retirement accounts; including:
- Recent Annual Statement from The Church Pension Fund (CPF) and other employer-provided pension and retirement savings plans
- Personal savings accounts, brokerage accounts, IRAs, 401(k)s, and 403(b)s(e.g. the Episcopal Church Lay Employees' Defined Contribution Retirement Plan (Lay DC Plan) and The Episcopal Church Retirement Savings Plan (RSVP) and all other accounts that will provide you income in your retirement
- Any pension plan statements in addition to those from CPF
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Current rate of contribution (as a percentage of annual compensation) to your employer-provided retirement savings plans.
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Current rate of contribution to your other savings, investment and retirement accounts.
2. What accounts should I include in "Other Investments" under "Other Savings Information"?
You should include all accounts you expect to use to provide retirement income. This might include checking and savings accounts, brokerage accounts, IRAs, 401(k)s and 403(b)s, and employer-provided savings accounts.
3. How is my Defined Contribution benefit determined?
Your benefit depends on the value of your account at the time you retire, and the payment option you choose. PlanAhead calculates the amount of annual income to be withdrawn from the defined contribution plan assuming that your projected savings will be spent by the end of your expected lifetime.
This tool provides an approximate estimate of your benefit. Your actual benefit at retirement will be calculated based on the exact balance of your plan, and the payment option you choose.
The tool assumes continuous employment up to retirement. If your work pattern or work history differs considerably, the benefit estimate calculated may be significantly inaccurate.
4. How is my Defined Benefit pension determined?
Your pension benefit is estimated using the formula specified in "A Guide to the Lay Defined Benefit Plan". The benefit is based on years of Credited Service and your Highest Average Compensation at the time of retirement. If your retirement date is earlier than normal retirement (the age you can retire and begin receiving unreduced benefits), the pension will be adjusted for early retirement as provided in your plan.
The tool provides an approximate estimate of your benefit. Your actual benefit at retirement will be calculated based on the exact provisions of your plan. If you are near retirement, please contact Client Services from 8:30 AM-8:00 PM, ET, Monday-Friday (excluding holidays) at (800) 802-6333 to request an estimate.
The tool assumes continuous employment up to retirement, with a full year of Credited Service each year. If your work pattern or work history differs considerably, the benefit estimate calculated may be significantly inaccurate.
Does the tool take into account IRS limits on the amount of benefits or contributions to my retirement plans?
For most users, the IRS limits will not apply. For higher income earners and users with significant employer contributions to the defined contribution plan, the limits may need to be considered in retirement planning. Please see the IRS website for additional information (www.irs.gov). Below is a brief description of how the IRS limits on your benefits and contributions are applied in PlanAhead:
- The IRS 401(a)(17) compensation limit that restricts the amount of annual compensation that may be considered for qualified retirement plans is applied to all employer-provided retirement plans.
- Contributions to the Lay Defined Contribution Plan, the RSVP and other employer-provided retirement plans include the annual participant contribution limits. If your current age is at least age 50, the contribution limit reflects catch-up contributions . Note however, that the IRS limits are applied to individual retirement plans, not to the total of all retirement plans of a user. A user with multiple employer provided retirement plans should consider if their total benefits and contributions are in compliance with IRS limits.
- Contributions to employer provided retirement plans do not include the IRS 415(c) limits on contributions.
- Benefits payable from a qualified retirement plan do not include the IRS 415(b) limits on annual benefits.
6. How are my savings used to provide retirement income?
Your savings are used by the tool to fill the gap between your needs and your pension and Social Security income over your expected lifetime. The tool assumes all your projected savings will be spent by the end of your expected lifetime.
If you want to leave an estate rather than exhaust all your savings, go to the Advanced Inputs page. Find the question about one-time needs after retirement. Enter the dollar amount of the estate you would like to leave to your heirs as a need. Enter the age of your life expectancy from the graph (the highest age where the graph is still showing retirement income being paid.) This will reserve some of your savings for an estate, and will result in a lower score.
7. How are cost-of-living increases reflected in my retirement income?
Your Social Security benefits are projected to increase with inflation. Pensions are not projected to increase. PlanAhead uses your savings balances to fill in your retirement needs. As your needs increase with inflation, the amount of your savings allocated to provide income increases accordingly. In this way, PlanAhead shows how your projected savings plus employer pension plans can provide retirement income that increases as your needs increase.
8. What does it mean that X% of needs are met?
Your score is the average percentage of your projected needs expected to be met by your projected retirement income. This result is calculated as the present value at retirement of your projected retirement income divided by the present value at retirement of your projected retirement needs. The present values are calculated using your post-retirement rate of investment return assumption. If the result is more than 100%, the value of your projected income exceeds the value of your projected needs.
In a few cases, the graph may show that retirement income exceeds your needs in some years and is less than your needs in other years. The percentage of needs met is the average percentage of your needs that will be met throughout retirement, taking into account both years of excess income and years of shortfall. This percentage of needs met by projected income is the best measure of your overall retirement income projection, based on all the information and assumptions you have entered.
9. Why do my needs end at a fixed age?
The tool uses your life expectancy (the expected number of years you will live beyond retirement) at your retirement age to illustrate your retirement needs and income sources. Life expectancy is merely an average length of time. To be conservative, PlanAhead uses a default life expectancy longer than the average. If you want to change the life expectancy used by PlanAhead, you can do so on the Advanced Settings page.
10. Can I set my own estimate of my needs?
Yes. The tool allows you to override the needs calculated with your own needs estimate. You can set your own needs percentage using the Advanced Inputs page. You may want to use your own estimate of needs if you expect much lower or higher income needs than are shown in the tool. Note that if you use this override, the tool will calculate your needs as that percentage multiplied by your compensation immediately before retirement. It will not include an adjustment for medical expenses. You will need to include medical needs in your override percentage.
11. How are cost-of-living increases reflected in my needs?
PlanAhead For Retirement increases the amount you need for living expenses each year by a cost-of-living increase rate. Similarly, the amount you need for medical expenses is increased each year by a medical trend rate. These assumptions are necessary to project an income that maintains your purchasing power during retirement. You can adjust the assumptions for cost-of-living increases in the Advanced Settings if you think you will need a different level of inflation protection. There are various reasons for using a lower rate of inflation in your estimate. (For example: your income needs may gradually reduce as you grow older and become less active.)
12. What is the basis for the Social Security benefit shown?
Your Social Security benefit is estimated beginning with your current pay and uses your current earnings history to project future earnings going forward. The tool assumes that you have been, or will be, employed in a job covered by Social Security for the full 35 years used to calculate the benefit level. If this is not the case because you were not working in all years or worked in a non-covered job such as certain government jobs, the tool may overestimate your Social Security benefit.
You can enter your earnings history into one of the online benefit calculators at www.ssa.gov to get a more precise estimate and enter those estimates on the Input page. When you enter your estimate in this tool, you will likely want to use the "future dollars" estimate. If you use the "current dollars" estimate, it's a much more conservative assumption and will result in a lower score.
If you think Social Security benefits will not be provided at the same level as the current law, you can make adjustments for that in the Advanced Settings - Social Security page.
13. Can I put in the actual benefit estimate that I received from Social Security?
Yes. Instead of having the tool estimate your Social Security benefit based on your current salary, you can enter your actual benefit estimate from Social Security on the Input page of the tool. You can use the Social Security retirement estimator at www.ssa.gov to get your benefit estimate in "future dollars." When you enter your estimate in this tool, you will likely want to use the "future dollars" estimate. If you use the "current dollars" estimate, it's a much more conservative assumption and will result in a lower score.
14. How is Medicare reflected?
The tool assumes you will be eligible for Medicare at age 65. The retiree medical insurance expenses shown reflect medical insurance costs beyond those covered by Medicare. These expenses will either be paid out-of-pocket or through supplemental insurance.
Since Medicare coverage is not generally available before age 65, early retirees will have higher needs for medical coverage in the years before they turn 65.
15. What are some of the key assumptions used in PlanAhead?
PlanAhead uses the following basic assumptions and methods.
- Your retirement income needs can be estimated from your projected compensation and national average research on needs. The calculator assumes you will need 100% of your pre-retirement income at the time of retirement.
- You are covered by Social Security and Medicare, and 100% of the current Social Security benefit is projected to be available when you retire.
- Knowledge of past investment performance over long periods is useful in planning for the future.
- All contributions to a defined contribution plan are pre-tax contributions and your contributions to any qualified defined contribution plan will not exceed your taxable compensation in any year.
- Your pension benefit is not reduced for any approved Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO), and excludes any disability benefits and lump sum death benefit.
- The IRS 401(a)(17) compensation limit that restricts the amount of annual compensation that may be considered for qualified retirement plans is applied to all employer-provided retirement plans.
- Longevity: The calculator's default assumption is that you will live 7 years longer than your average life expectancy. Average life expectancy of a 65-year old is assumed to be age 89.
16. What information will I need to enter, and will it be kept safe?
To use PlanAhead, you will need to enter some private information, including information regarding your finances. To protect your privacy, PlanAhead uses a secure internet connection and requires your email address and password in order to access your records. Do not share your log-in credentials with others and be sure to log off the site completely when you are finished.
PlanAhead requires the use (including, in certain cases, the storage and retrieval) of your information. By using PlanAhead, you understand that Milliman and The Church Pension Fund and its affiliates may undertake such use in order to provide you access to the tool. Additionally, PlanAhead uses cookies to connect your input on one page to calculations and graphs on a different page. PlanAhead will not work without cookies being enabled by your browser. A cookie is information that a web site puts on your computer's hard disk so it can remember something about your web session at a later time. When your PC's browser uses cookies, it "remembers" what web sites look like - it doesn't have to build a page from scratch every time you want.
17. What do I do if the email link is not working?
If you are having trouble using the email links, try opening your email and starting a new message. Highlight the email address link, right click and choose Copy. Then, click in the "To" field of your email and right click and paste. Now, send your email as usual.
18. Who do I contact for help?
PlanAhead provides more detailed information to answer your questions in several ways.
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