Retirement Savings
Save for your future with Carnegie Mellon's retirement savings plans! You can elect to make employee contributions to your plan through payroll deduction. The university will also contribute to your retirement savings if you're eligible. You'll be automatically enrolled in university contributions upon meeting eligibility requirements.
CMU offers two retirement savings plans through TIAA, our retirement savings vendor:
- Carnegie Mellon University Faculty and Staff Retirement Plan (FSRP) for eligible faculty and staff who are U.S. Citizens or U.S. Permanent Residents.
- Carnegie Mellon University 401(k) Plan for eligible faculty and staff who are non-U.S. Citizens and non-U.S. residents (non-resident aliens) on their hire date.
On this page:
University Contributions
Faculty and staff are eligible for university contributions if they are:
- Age 21+
- Full time or, if part time, work at least 1,000 hours in an employment year
- Have U.S.-source income and are paid in U.S. dollars are eligible for university contributions.
- "Local hire" employees in Rwanda and Qatar are not eligible for university contributions.
Employee Contributions
- All faculty members, staff members and student employees are eligible to contribute by payroll deduction.
- Employees in Rwanda and Qatar are not eligible to make employee contributions to the FSRP or 401(k) plan if they do not have U.S.-source income and they are not paid in U.S. dollars.
University Contributions
- Eligible faculty and staff are automatically enrolled for university contributions at TIAA into an age-appropriate Target Date Retirement Fund (based on the year you will reach age 65).
- Full-time faculty and staff members are enrolled on the first day of the month coincident with or following their date of hire.
- Part-time faculty and staff are enrolled upon reaching 1,000 hours of service in each anniversary year.
- Carnegie Mellon contributes an amount equal to 8% of your eligible base salary, unless you have a 9-month academic year appointment; then Carnegie Mellon contributes 9.78% of your academic year salary, paid over nine months.
- You are not taxed on university contributions at the time they are made. All contributions and their earnings will be taxable when you take a distribution. An additional penalty may be assessed if you withdraw funds prior to age 59½.
- Once your first university contribution is made, you can make investment fund changes to future contributions and move current assets on TIAA's website or by phone at 800-842-2252.
Employee Contributions
- Faculty members, staff members and student workers can make their own contributions through payroll deduction by logging in to TIAA's website. (Select "Log In" at top-right, then "Need online access?" to create your account.)
- The default investment will be the age-appropriate Target Date Retirement Fund (based on the year you will reach age 65). You can:
- contribute up to 100% of your pay.
- choose between traditional pre-tax and/or Roth (post-tax) contributions. See TIAA's Comparing Roth After-tax and Pretax Contributions for more information.
- contribute up to a maximum of $23,000 (the 2024 IRS limit).
- The FSRP is an Internal Revenue Code Section 403(b) plan and has a special catch-up for 15 years of service. This is calculated each year and automatically applied if you qualify. This catch-up provision does not apply to 401(k) plans.
- contribute an additional $7,500 if you will be age 50 by 12/31/2024.
- make investment fund changes to future contributions and move current assets on TIAA's website or by phone at 800-842-2252.
How to Update Your Retirement Elections
There are two ways to access your account and make changes to your retirement contribution amounts.
- Option 1: Log in to TIAA.org. First time user? Go to "Log in" in the upper-right corner and then "Need online access?" and follow the prompts.
- Option 2: Log in to Workday and use single sign-on to enter the TIAA site. Select "Benefits and Pay" from your Workday homepage, then "TIAA Employee Portal" under the Suggested Links menu.
Once logged in, you can change what you're contributing to your account:
- Select "Accounts" from the top menu, then select "Manage contributions" and follow the prompts.
- You can choose for the changes to be effective on a future date or the first available paycheck. Select "Payroll Schedules" to see deadlines.
- Enter the percentage or dollar amount you want to put into your retirement account per paycheck, proceed through the prompts, then confirm and submit.
- Plan numbers are 102240 (university contributions to the FSRP), 102241 (employee contributions to the FSRP) and 407921 (401(k) Plan).
Need assistance? Call TIAA at 800-842-2776.
How to View or Update Your Retirement Beneficiary Designations
Please note that you can have up to six contracts depending on your length of employment with the university. You must indicate your beneficiary(ies) on each contract.
Online
- Log in to TIAA using the Log In link at the top right of the page. If you are logging in for the first time, select “Need online access.” Plan numbers are 102240 (university contributions to the FSRP), 102241 (employee contributions to the FSRP) and 407921 (401(k) Plan).
- Select the Accounts tab, then the View all actions quick link.
- Select Beneficiaries and follow the instructions.
By Phone
Call TIAA at 800-842-2252.
What Is Vesting?
Vesting means that you own the funds Carnegie Mellon has contributed on your behalf, as well as any earnings from those investments. If you separate from the university before you are vested, you will lose all university contributions and any earnings.
You are always 100% vested in your own contributions.
Vesting Requirements
You must complete three years of service to be vested under the CMU Faculty and Staff Retirement Plan or the 401(k) Plan.
- You must complete 1,000 hours in each of three employment years.
- Your employment year begins on your date of hire and is not necessarily a calendar year.
- The Faculty and Staff Retirement Plan document [pdf] details how hours are counted for exempt employees.
Prior Service Credit
The three-year vesting period may be reduced or waived if, within five years of employment at CMU, you performed sufficient services at another college/university and met certain participation requirements.
- For this service to be recognized for vesting purposes under the Faculty and Staff Retirement Plan or the CMU 401(k), you must complete the Prior Service Credit Request form [pdf] and return it to a retirement benefit specialist. The university will then reach out to your former employer to verify the prior years of service.
Immediate Vesting
You become immediately vested if, while employed at the university, you:
- become permanently disabled,
- turn age 65 ("normal retirement age"), or
- die (in which case your beneficiary will receive a benefit).
Investment Fund Options
You can make changes to your investment funds through TIAA.org or by phone. See How to View or Update Your Retirement Elections for instructions on accessing your account, or call TIAA at 800-842-2776.
Retirement Plan Documents
Contact TIAA
- National Center: 800-842-2776
- Client Scheduling: 800-732-8353
- CMU web portal (or log in through Workday's Benefits and Pay hub using single sign-on)
The Internal Revenue Code places a variety of limits on the amounts that may be contributed to the account of a participant in a 403(b) or 401(k) retirement plan in a given year. Failure to comply with these limits can expose both the participant and the plan sponsor to penalties. Carnegie Mellon University performs calculations each year to help ensure that contributions to the CMU Plans do not exceed the various dollar and percentage of compensation limits imposed by federal tax law.
As part of Carnegie Mellon’s compliance efforts, it must collect certain information from participants in the CMU Plans who also participate in any other retirement plan of other employers, since in some cases contributions to these other plans must be combined with those made to a CMU Plan when applying the contribution limits. If you fall into any of the categories listed below, please log in to TIAA and enter any contributions you made this year through a different employer to ensure you don't exceed the maximum amount allowed per year. (From the Accounts menu, select "Manage contributions.")
- Participate currently or have participated in a 403(b) or 401(k) retirement plan in addition to a CMU Plan, whether or not the additional plan is sponsored by Carnegie Mellon
- Participate currently or have participated in a qualified 401(a) retirement plan sponsored by an employer in which you are at least a 50% owner of such employer at any time during the year
- Are currently making or have made elective deferrals during the current calendar year (including Roth contributions) to both a CMU Plan and a 403(b) or 401(k) plan of another employer
For 2025, 403(b) and 401(k) employee elective deferral contributions (including Roth contributions) to the CMU Plans and all other plans you participate in generally should not exceed $23,500 ($31,000 if you are age 50–59 or 64+ by 12/31/2025; $34,750 if turn age 60–63 in 2025). You may need to reduce your own contributions to one or more of the plans to avoid exceeding the limits.
Also, the combination of your own contributions (both pre-tax and post-tax) and CMU’s contributions on your behalf to a CMU Plan generally cannot exceed the lesser of $70,000 (currently) or your includible compensation. In addition, if you participated in one or more other plans sponsored by an employer in which you are at least a 50% owner at any time during the plan year, contributions to that other employer’s plans (both your own contributions and your employer’s contributions) are included when determining the total amount of contributions you may have under CMU’s 403(b) plan (but not CMU’s 401(k) plan). You may need to reduce your own contributions to one or more of the plans to avoid exceeding the limits.
If you have questions, please contact HR Services at 412-268-4600 or hr-help@andrew.cmu.edu.
This notice does not constitute legal or tax advice. You should consult with your tax professional to determine how these limits apply to you.
Carnegie Mellon University reserves the right to amend, modify, suspend, replace or terminate any of its plans, policies or programs, in whole or in part, including any level or form of coverage, by appropriate action of the university (or its delegate), without the consent or concurrence of persons affected.
The information presented is not intended to create, nor is it to be construed to create, a contract between the university (or its affiliates) and any one of the university’s employees, former employees, or other plan participants or beneficiaries.
Please note that a summary of the benefits provided under each plan is contained in the summary plan description for such plan. Full details are provided in the official plan documents, which govern the operation of the respective plan. In the event that the content provided or any oral representations made by any person regarding a plan conflict with or are inconsistent with the provisions of the applicable plan document, the provisions of the applicable plan document will control.