What this guide covers
- How BMC’s employer contribution works
- BMC employer contribution by years of service
- Who qualifies for the employer contribution
- Legacy City of Boston retirement benefits
- Your 403(b) is immediately vested
- Review how your 403(b) is invested
- Review beneficiaries and spousal rights
- Know the 2026 contribution limits
- If you joined through BMC South or BMC Brighton
- What happens to your 403(b) when you leave BMC
- HSA and Earned Time tax considerations
- Estimate your BMC retirement contributions
- Union employees should confirm their plan terms
- Eight benefit details to review
How BMC’s employer contribution works
Boston Medical Center’s current plan documents use the term employer matching contribution, but the formula for most eligible employees does not work like a conventional dollar-for-dollar match. Once you meet the plan’s eligibility requirements and contribute at least 2% of eligible compensation, BMC’s contribution is determined by your years of service.
TIAA’s current BMC plan page says employees are immediately eligible to make voluntary pre-tax or Roth contributions. The employer contribution generally begins after you complete one year of service with at least 1,000 hours and contribute at least 2% to the plan.
Eligibility can vary by employee group. The current Summary Plan Description specifically excludes per-diem employees and House Officers from employer matching contributions, while TIAA’s public plan page also notes exclusions for students and certain bargaining-unit employees unless their collective bargaining agreement provides participation. If you fall into one of these groups, confirm the provision that applies to you before relying on the general schedule below.
The plan also includes automatic enrollment. The current Summary Plan Description sets the automatic pre-tax contribution at 3%, with a 1-percentage-point annual increase up to 15% unless you make a different election. BMC materials state that automatically enrolled contributions are initially directed to a lifecycle fund based on expected retirement year. If you were automatically enrolled and did not intend to participate, the plan document describes a 90-day window in which an eligible refund of automatic deferrals may be requested.
BMC employer contribution by years of service
For most eligible employees, BMC’s contribution increases as service increases.
| Years of service | Employer contribution | On $80,000 of pay | Your 2% contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 years | 3% of pay | $2,400 | $1,600 |
| 5 to 9 years | 5% of pay | $4,000 | $1,600 |
| 10 to 19 years | 7% of pay | $5,600 | $1,600 |
| 20 or more years | 8% of pay | $6,400 | $1,600 |
The employee threshold is the same at every tier, but the employer contribution increases with service. At twenty years of service, an eligible employee who contributes 2% receives an employer contribution equal to 8% of eligible pay. On the $80,000 example above, the employee contributes $1,600 and BMC contributes $6,400 before investment returns.
This distinction matters. In a conventional matching plan, increasing a contribution can produce additional employer dollars. Under BMC’s published formula, contributing at least 2% qualifies an eligible employee for the full service-based contribution. Saving more may still be appropriate, but it does not increase BMC’s contribution.
Check the 2% thresholdUnder the published formula, an otherwise eligible employee who contributes less than 2% does not receive a partial employer contribution.
At twenty years of service and $80,000 of eligible pay, falling below the threshold could mean missing a $6,400 annual employer contribution. Because automatic enrollment begins above the threshold, employees who previously opted out, lowered their rate or returned from leave should verify their current election.
Who qualifies for the employer contribution
For most employees covered by the general schedule, three things need to line up before BMC’s employer contribution begins:
- You contribute at least 2% of eligible compensation. The general employer-contribution formula is triggered at this threshold; contributing more does not increase the service-based percentage.
- You complete the service requirement. The current plan materials describe eligibility after one year of service with at least 1,000 Hours of Service.
- You satisfy the hours test. If you do not reach 1,000 hours during the first 12 months after hire, the plan can credit a Year of Service after a later plan year in which you reach 1,000 hours.
The plan’s definition of an Hour of Service includes more than hours physically worked and can include certain paid absences. Employee classification also matters, so part-time employees, employees returning from leave, House Officers, per-diem employees and bargaining-unit employees should confirm their status with BMC or TIAA rather than relying on hours alone.
Legacy City of Boston retirement benefits
BMC was created in 1996 through the merger of Boston City Hospital and Boston University Medical Center Hospital. Some employees connected to that transition remain subject to special retirement provisions that differ from the general service-based schedule.
The current BMC Summary Plan Description identifies a special provision for an employee of the City of Boston Department of Health and Hospitals on June 30, 1996 who was vested in the State-Boston Retirement System on that date, or who would have vested by September 30, 1997 had employment continued under that system. For an employee who meets that provision, an elective deferral of at least 1% of compensation is tied to a 1.5% BMC employer contribution.
If your BMC service reaches back to the 1996 transition, also determine whether a State-Boston Retirement System benefit exists in your name. A municipal pension is separate from the BMC 403(b) and will not appear as part of the TIAA account balance.
The Social Security Fairness Act repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset for Social Security benefits payable for months after December 2023. If an older projection assumed that a State-Boston pension would reduce your Social Security benefit, update the projection using current Social Security rules.
Your 403(b) is immediately vested
The current BMC Summary Plan Description states that participants are 100% vested in all plan accounts. TIAA’s current BMC plan page likewise describes contributions to the account as immediately vested.
That means employer contributions already credited to your 403(b) are not subject to a multi-year vesting schedule. If you are comparing a job change or retirement date, you generally do not need to wait for a future vesting milestone in this plan. As always, confirm whether any separate legacy benefit or collective bargaining provision follows different rules.
Review how your 403(b) is invested
Contribution strategy answers how much goes into the account. Investment strategy answers what that money is expected to do once it is there.
BMC materials state that employees who are automatically enrolled are initially invested in a lifecycle fund based on their expected retirement year. That is a reasonable default mechanism, but it is not a household-level financial plan. A target-date fund does not account for a spouse’s portfolio, a legacy pension, an HSA, taxable investments, concentrated stock, or assets held at prior employers.
Review the current investment menu in your TIAA account before making changes. BMC’s publicly posted investment lineup is dated 2024, while TIAA maintains the current plan menu and disclosures. For that reason, this guide does not treat an older published fund list as a permanent menu.
The planning question is not simply which fund looks best on its own. It is what allocation makes sense across the household, and which BMC options efficiently fill the portion of that allocation held inside the 403(b).
Fees worth checking
TIAA’s current public page for the BMC plan lists an annual $35 TIAA Plan Servicing Fee for participants with a Retirement Choice and/or Retirement Choice Plus account, an annual $15 Non-TIAA Plan Services Fee, and separate charges for optional services such as loans and Retirement Plan Portfolio Manager. Investment expense ratios are separate and vary by the options you hold.
Review both layers: plan-level charges and investment-level expenses. The lowest-cost option is not automatically the right investment, but fees are one of the variables that can be measured directly and compared with the role each holding plays in the portfolio.
If you hold TIAA Traditional or another annuity option, also review the contract’s withdrawal rules. TIAA notes that access to a lump sum from TIAA Traditional may be restricted by the contract and may require periodic payments or another permitted distribution method.
Review beneficiaries and spousal rights
Your retirement-plan beneficiary should be reviewed separately from beneficiaries attached to employer-provided life insurance or other benefits. BMC/TIAA materials direct participants to manage the 403(b) beneficiary through TIAA.
BMC’s TIAA materials state that if no beneficiary is named, the participant’s estate is the default. They also state that a married participant’s spouse has protected rights in the account unless the required spousal waiver or consent is completed.
A will does not replace the beneficiary election maintained by the retirement plan. After a marriage, divorce, birth, death, trust update or other estate-planning change, obtain a current beneficiary confirmation from TIAA and make sure it still produces the result you intend.
Know the 2026 contribution limits
Your BMC 403(b) elective deferrals count toward the federal annual limit that generally applies across the 401(k) and 403(b) plans you contribute to during the calendar year. This is especially important after a job change or when you contribute through more than one employer.
| 2026 limit | Amount | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Basic elective deferral | $24,500 | Shared across 401(k) and 403(b) elective deferrals that are subject to the same federal limit. |
| Age 50+ catch-up | $8,000 | Generally allows total elective deferrals of $32,500 for employees who are 50–59 or 64+ at year-end, if the plan permits catch-up contributions. |
| Ages 60–63 catch-up | $11,250 | Replaces the $8,000 age-based catch-up for employees who turn 60, 61, 62 or 63 during 2026, for total elective deferrals of $35,750. |
| Annual additions | $72,000 | Generally limits employee and employer contributions to a defined contribution plan, excluding applicable catch-up contributions. |
| Compensation limit | $360,000 | Federal compensation cap used for qualified-plan purposes in 2026. |
BMC’s employer contribution does not use up your $24,500 elective-deferral limit, but employer contributions generally count toward the separate annual-additions limit.
If your 2025 wages from the employer sponsoring the plan exceeded $150,000 for purposes of the SECURE 2.0 Roth catch-up rule, 2026 age-based catch-up contributions generally must be Roth when the plan offers a Roth feature. The basic $24,500 deferral can still be pre-tax, Roth or a combination, subject to the plan’s available options.
If you joined through BMC South or BMC Brighton
Good Samaritan Medical Center and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center joined Boston Medical Center Health System on October 1, 2024. They are now known as BMC South and BMC Brighton.
If you joined BMC Health System through that transition, do not assume every retirement asset from the former Steward organization automatically appears in your current BMC account. Locate your most recent statement from the prior plan and confirm the plan name, recordkeeper, balance, investments and beneficiary designation.
Then compare the options available under that prior plan and your current BMC arrangement. Depending on the account and plan terms, choices may include leaving assets where they are or completing an eligible rollover to another retirement plan or IRA. Because benefit integration and collective bargaining arrangements have continued to evolve at BMC South and BMC Brighton, use your current transition materials and plan documents rather than assuming the Boston-campus 403(b) provisions apply identically.
What happens to your 403(b) when you leave BMC
After leaving BMC, your options can include keeping eligible assets in the plan, taking a permitted distribution, or completing an eligible rollover to an IRA or another employer plan that accepts the assets. The best choice depends on investment options, fees, withdrawal rules, creditor protection, services and tax treatment.
Small balances deserve special attention. TIAA’s current BMC plan page states that the plan may distribute an account when the value does not exceed $2,000. It also describes separate contract-level rules that can apply to a TIAA Traditional balance and to the participant’s overall account balance. Review the notice you receive rather than relying on a generic federal cash-out threshold.
If you hold TIAA Traditional, distribution flexibility may be more limited than it is for a mutual fund account. Check the contract before choosing a rollover destination or retirement date so that a transfer restriction does not become a surprise after employment ends.
While you are still employed, hardship and other in-service distributions are available only when the plan and investment arrangement permit them. The current Summary Plan Description lists qualifying hardship categories such as certain medical, housing, tuition, funeral and federally declared disaster expenses. Confirm eligibility with TIAA before treating the 403(b) as an available source of cash.
HSA and Earned Time tax considerations
Health Savings Account. If you are enrolled in an HSA-eligible high-deductible health plan and otherwise satisfy federal eligibility rules, an HSA can add another tax-advantaged account to the household balance sheet. Contributions can receive favorable tax treatment, earnings can compound tax-deferred, and qualified medical withdrawals can be federally tax-free. A general-purpose medical FSA generally prevents HSA contributions, while limited-purpose and certain post-deductible FSAs are treated differently.
Earned Time. BMC continues to reference earned-time cash-outs in current job materials, and BMC’s public Earned Time guidance states that termination pay is handled through the employer’s payroll system. The tax effect depends on the amount and timing of the payout. Before choosing a departure date, ask HR to confirm the balance eligible for payout, the applicable policy or collective bargaining agreement, and when the payment is expected to occur.
For employees approaching Medicare, a large taxable payout or other one-time income event can also matter beyond the departure-year tax bill because Medicare income-related premiums are based on prior tax-return information. That is a planning issue rather than a reason to delay a payout that is otherwise appropriate.
Estimate your BMC retirement contributions
Use the calculator below to illustrate the general BMC service tiers, 2% contribution threshold, hours requirement and 2026 elective-deferral limits. It is an educational estimate, not an eligibility determination or a substitute for your plan records.
Boston Medical Center 403(b) snapshot
Enter your own figures. Everything updates as you type, and nothing is sent anywhere.
The threshold
All the money going in
Your deferral limit
About this tool. An interactive educational tool. It performs arithmetic on the figures you enter and does not retrieve your account or plan information. All calculations run in your browser. The figures you type are not transmitted to, collected by, or stored by Finivi Inc.
Assumptions and limitations: Results are hypothetical estimates. The tool applies the service tiers, threshold contribution, and hours requirement described in publicly available employer benefits materials; it does not determine whether you are excluded because of student status, per-diem status, job classification, bargaining-unit status or another plan provision. It does not know your plan’s actual provisions, employing entity, definitions of eligible compensation, service or hours, entry dates, or the timing of any employer contribution. It applies the 2026 elective-deferral and catch-up figures and does not model the annual-additions limit, compensation limit, nonqualified plans, prior-employer deferrals in the same year, or any plan-specific limit. It does not calculate investment returns or project tax outcomes. Your actual results may differ from its estimates. A description of the criteria and methodology used, including all assumptions and limitations, is available on request at info@finivi.com.
Not advice. Educational only, and not personalized investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Finivi Inc. is not a law firm or an accounting firm. Confirm every provision against your own Summary Plan Description and plan documents, which govern.
Union employees should confirm their plan terms
Retirement provisions for bargaining-unit employees can differ from the general schedule and can change through collective bargaining. TIAA’s public BMC plan page states that bargaining-unit employees participate in the employer contribution only when their collective bargaining agreement provides for it, while the current Summary Plan Description also contains special provisions for certain legacy groups.
Use the current collective bargaining agreement, Summary Plan Description and your TIAA account records together. The relevant questions are the contribution formula, employee threshold, credited service, eligibility, and whether a legacy provision applies to your group.
Eight benefit details to review
- Your current contribution rate, including whether you are at or above the threshold required for the employer contribution that applies to your group.
- Your years of service and employer-contribution tier, including how close you are to the next step in the general 3% / 5% / 7% / 8% schedule.
- Whether a legacy City of Boston or other pre-1996 provision applies, and whether a separate pension benefit exists in your name.
- Your TIAA beneficiary designation and any spousal-consent requirement, coordinated with your current estate plan and life-insurance elections.
- Any balance left at a former employer, including a prior Steward-era account if you joined through BMC South or BMC Brighton.
- Your total 2026 elective deferrals across plans, and whether the $150,000 prior-year wage threshold makes your age-based catch-up Roth.
- Your current investment allocation, viewed alongside your spouse’s accounts, IRAs, HSA, taxable investments, pensions and other household assets.
- Your current fees and withdrawal restrictions, including plan-servicing charges, investment expense ratios and any contract-specific rules for annuity holdings.
Sources
Benefit terms can change and individual eligibility can differ. The provisions in this article were checked against the current TIAA plan page for Boston Medical Center, the current Boston Medical Center 403(b) Retirement Plan Summary Plan Description, BMC’s employee benefits overview, BMC/TIAA retirement-planning materials, the IRS 403(b) contribution-limit guidance, and the Social Security Administration’s Social Security Fairness Act guidance. Confirm your own plan provisions and current investment menu before acting.
Ready for a second set of eyes?
Finivi is an independent investment adviser and is not affiliated with BMC. We can review the retirement plan alongside the rest of your financial picture, including outside investments, taxes, Social Security and the timing of a career change or retirement.
A review typically covers:
- Which employer-contribution provision applies to you and whether your current rate captures it
- How your BMC investments fit with the rest of the household portfolio
- Prior-employer balances and consolidation choices
- Beneficiary designations and spousal rights
- Pre-tax versus Roth contributions, including the 2026 catch-up rules
- How the pieces fit with taxes, Social Security and your retirement timeline
Finivi Inc. is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Boston Medical Center, Boston Medical Center Health System, Boston University, TIAA, or any affiliated entity, vendor, or labor organization. These employers and organizations are named only to identify groups of employees this material is written for. This article is educational and is not personalized investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Retirement and benefit provisions can vary by employing entity, hire date, job classification, collective bargaining status, legacy group and hours worked, and they are subject to change. If anything here conflicts with the applicable plan document, Summary Plan Description, collective bargaining agreement or individual account record, those materials govern. Investment options and fees change; confirm the current menu, disclosures and contract terms with BMC and TIAA. Guarantees under annuity contracts are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Advisory services offered through Finivi Inc., an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Registration does not imply any particular level of skill or training.
