Employer cents: Q1/26

second QUARTER | 2026

Online contribution changes will soon be available for the CalPERS 457 Plan

The CalPERS 457 Plan continues to work toward making participation easy and convenient for your eligible employees. After adding online enrollment in 2025, we are pleased to announce that online contribution changes for CalPERS 457 Plan participants launches after 1 pm PT on August 7th. In preparation for the launch, a small number of adopting agencies were given early access to the new online contribution change feature and the response from them and their participants has been positive.

More information will be sent to all agencies and active participants in the coming weeks, helping to prepare you and them for this exciting new feature.

	An online contribution change guide will be mailed and emailed to your agency’s actively employed CalPERS 457 Plan participants to detail the steps to update their contributions online.
	A new CalPERS on-demand video will be posted to calpers457.com to detail the steps for participants to make changes online.
	In addition to the participant resources, an online contribution change FAQ was developed for agencies to help you process online contribution change requests. Updated CalPERS 457 Plan materials will also be posted on calpers-sip.com after online contribution changes launch online to provide you with new materials in promoting the Plan to your active non-participating employees.

CalPERS staff are available to answer any contribution change and myCalPERS questions to help make this process as seamless as possible. More information and resources will be shared with you in the coming weeks as the online contribution change functionality is rolled out. Thank you for your partnership in adopting and offering the CalPERS 457 Plan to your employees.

It is vital to let the CalPERS 457 Plan team know when there are changes to your personnel. Let’s work together to ensure that we have updated records of your agency’s points of contact, their roles, and how to reach them by phone and email.

Please report any changes to the CalPERS 457 Plan team as soon as possible.

Online contribution changes will soon be available for the CalPERS 457 Plan

FICA (Social Security) Participating Agencies: Prepare Now for SECURE 2.0 Section 603

CalPERS 457 Plan catch-up guidelines for employers

Access participant reports on Voya’s Sponsor Web

Processing beneficiary changes for CalPERS 457 Plan participants

Spend some time this summer helping to satisfy your fiduciary responsibility

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FICA (Social Security) Participating Agencies: Prepare Now for SECURE 2.0 Section 603

If your agency pays into FICA (Social Security) on behalf of employees, now is the time to prepare for the SECURE 2.0 Act Section 603 Roth catch-up requirements. Although the IRS has provided implementation flexibility during 2026, FICA-participating employers are expected to use this transition period to update payroll and administrative processes in preparation for full implementation beginning in 2027.

Section 603 requires that employees age 50 and older whose prior-year FICA wages exceed the IRS threshold ($150,000 in 2025, indexed annually for inflation) make any age-based catch-up contributions on a Roth after-tax basis. CalPERS encourages all FICA-participating agencies to use the remainder of 2026 to ensure they are operationally prepared to administer these requirements by 2027 at the latest.

Act Now

During this year’s transition period, CalPERS encourages FICA-participating agencies to:

Review payroll systems to identify employees who may be subject to the Section 603 Roth catch-up requirements.
Confirm that payroll providers can accurately process Roth catch-up contributions for affected employees.
Evaluate how prior-year FICA wages are tracked and reported for determining eligibility.
Update internal payroll procedures and employee communications, as appropriate.
Coordinate with payroll providers and internal staff to test processes before the 2027 implementation.

IRS Notice 2023-62 provides more information about the administrative transition period established by the IRS, and their guidance to rely on a reasonable, good-faith interpretation of the statutory requirements while implementation practices mature.

Don't Wait

Although the transition period provides valuable flexibility, agencies should not delay planning efforts. By 2027, FICA-eligible agencies must be prepared to administer the Roth catch-up requirements as part of their normal payroll and retirement plan processes. If you have not done so already, use the rest of 2026 to focus on minimizing future administrative burdens, reduce the risk of compliance issues and ensure affected employees receive clear guidance regarding their contribution options under the CalPERS 457 Plan.

If your agency has questions regarding payroll administration, FICA eligibility, or Section 603 implementation, please contact the CalPERS 457 Employer Plan Line at 800-696-3907 or email CalPERS_457_plan@calpers.ca.gov.

CalPERS 457 Plan catch-up guidelines for employers

As we reach the midway point of the year, some of your participating employees may be getting close to the $24,500 annual deferral limit for 2026. Participants of the CalPERS 457 Plan who are over age 50 or within three years of their projected retirement date, though, have three additional provisions for computing their maximum allowable deferral limits, based on their age and/or their years to retirement. This includes an Ages 60-63 catch-up provision that was added to the CalPERS 457 Plan in 2025.

To identify which catch-up provisions are appropriate for an employee, you need to determine three things:

How much the employee plans to contribute, making sure that the additional deferrals do not exceed the limitations described in Article 4 of the CalPERS 457 Plan Document.
The employee’s age and the number of years to their designated eligible retirement date.
The employee’s normal retirement age.

The responses will help decide which of the catch-up provisions is appropriate to implement. The assist you, CalPERS developed these guidelines to help determine which catch-up provision the employee should elect.

REMINDER — If your agency pays info FICA (Social Security tax) for a participating employee, aged 50 or older, whose wages exceeded $150,000 in 2025, a mandatory provision from the SECURE 2.0 Act is now in effect that you must make a reasonable good faith effort to comply with. In those instances, impacted employees can only make age-based catch-up contributions on a Roth after-tax basis.

If your participating employee has questions about their catch-up options, encourage them to schedule a personal appointment with a dedicated Account Manager for the CalPERS 457 Plan by calling 888-713-8244 or visiting calpers457.timetap.com. Together, they can review and discuss their retirement saving strategy as it applies to their current year’s limits.

Access participant reports on Voya’s Sponsor Web

Sponsor Web, also known as Voya PayCloud, is a website designed for plan sponsors that allows you to view participant and plan level information at any time. If you don’t have access to Sponsor Web, please email CalPERS_Plan_Admin@voya.com to request access.

Participant Valuation Reports provide details and summaries of participant activity in the CalPERS 457 Plan

Loan Feedback Files include information about new loans issued or paid during the prior week, for agencies that have adopted the CalPERS 457 Plan’s loan provision.

Online Enrollment Files detail new participants who have enrolled in the CalPERS 457 Plan online during the previous week.

Online Contribution Change Files detail participants who have updated their CalPERS 457 Plan contributions online during the previous week.

With the launch of online contribution changes in early August, a new participant report will be added to Sponsor Web that allows your payroll team to log into Sponsor Web and access a weekly report that summarizes changes made to a participant’s CalPERS 457 Plan contribution rate. The report will help complement the information available to you through myCalPERS to keep an up-to-date and accurate record of participant contributions to the Plan.

Visit calpers-sip.com and go to the Employer Materials section for helpful flyers that detail the steps to retrieve reports from Sponsor Web. For reporting or myCalPERS questions, please email us or call 800-696-3907 weekdays between 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. PT.

Processing beneficiary changes for CalPERS 457 Plan participants

As a reminder, unmarried CalPERS 457 Plan participants or married participants naming their spouse as the primary beneficiary can make beneficiary elections and changes online by logging into their account at calpers.voya.com. If your agency prefers that they complete a Beneficiary Designation Form to make a change instead, they must still be forwarded for processing within 90 days of when it was signed and dated. This is a critical part of the recordkeeping process to ensure that the wishes of your employees are followed in the event of their death.

When you receive a Beneficiary Designation Form, please make it a priority to forward a copy to Voya for processing. You can email the form or fax it to 888-228-6185. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Spend some time this summer helping to satisfy your fiduciary responsibility

The summer is a great time to schedule a review of your agency’s CalPERS 457 Plan. Don’t wait until the last minute to help satisfy your fiduciary responsibility. You can learn a lot about your employees and their retirement progress by reviewing your Plan’s participation rate, accumulated savings, and investment performance. We can meet at a date and time that’s most convenient for you. Together, let’s review where you stand now

Email Dave Saavedra or call 916-795-3908 today to arrange a review.

CalPERS 457 Plan representatives are available for myCalPERS and payroll assistance. Email us or call 800-696-3907, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Pacific Time).

Plan administration services provided by Voya Institutional Plan Services, LLC. Information from registered Plan Service Representatives is for educational purposes only and is not legal, tax or investment advice. Local Plan Service Representatives are registered representatives of Voya Financial Advisors, Inc. (member SIPC).

This newsletter was prepared by Voya Financial^®. Articles by Voya are not intended to provide tax or investment advice. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available herein has not been independently verified by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), nor does it necessarily state or reflect the views of CalPERS. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, processor service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or favoring by CalPERS. © 2026 Voya Services Company. All rights reserved

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