How to evaluate the Choice Retirement decision
The DB plan gives you a guaranteed monthly income for life. The DC plan gives you an employer-funded account that you invest. Neither is universally better — the right answer depends on your specific situation.
Guaranteed pension income
- Monthly income for life, based on salary × years of service × a benefit multiplier
- No investment decisions — Cedars-Sinai manages the pool
- Longevity protection — income continues regardless of market performance
- Typically favors physicians who stay at Cedars until retirement
- Vesting period: partial benefits vest before full vesting
- If you leave before full vesting, you may receive a reduced benefit or none
- No portable lump-sum balance if you leave early
Investable account balance
- Employer contributes to a DC account in your name; you invest it
- Account balance is yours — rolls to IRA if you leave Cedars
- Full investment control within the Voya fund lineup
- Upside tied to investment returns; no floor on the downside
- Typically favors physicians who may leave Cedars before traditional retirement age
- Pairs with the 403(b) employer match (up to 6%) for total employer contributions
- No guaranteed income — you manage drawdown in retirement
Which is better for you depends on your age at hire, expected tenure, retirement income needs, and risk tolerance. We build a model comparing projected lifetime income under each scenario before your 30-day window closes.
Total retirement savings capacity at Cedars-Sinai
Cedars-Sinai does not offer a 457(b), which reduces total pre-tax capacity compared to UCLA or USC. The 403(b) match is the most important bucket to capture in full.
403(b) — $24,500, with employer match
Cedars-Sinai's 403(b) is held at Voya Financial with a standard fund lineup. Employee elective deferral is $24,500 in 2026; catch-up is $8,000 at 50+ and $11,250 at 60–63. Cedars-Sinai provides an employer match — typically up to 6% of eligible compensation — to physicians in the DC track. To receive the full match, you must contribute at least 6% yourself.
For a physician earning $350,000 at Cedars-Sinai, the 6% match represents $21,000 in additional annual compensation. Physicians who contribute less than 6% to the 403(b) are forfeiting that match — a permanent loss. Capturing the full match is the first priority before any other savings strategy.
No 457(b) — the Cedars-Sinai planning gap
Unlike UCLA Health (governmental 457(b), $24,500) and USC Keck (non-governmental 457(b), $24,500), Cedars-Sinai does not offer a 457(b) plan for most employed physicians. This means your maximum pre-tax deferral stops at the 403(b) limit of $24,500 — compared to $49,000 combined at UCLA or USC. This gap is a real difference in tax capacity, particularly for high-earning Cedars physicians at the 46%+ combined marginal rate.
The planning implication: Cedars-Sinai physicians need to work harder on after-tax strategies — Backdoor Roth IRA, tax-efficient asset location in taxable accounts, HSA maximization (if eligible), and potentially 529 contributions — to offset the lower pre-tax deferral capacity compared to their colleagues at UCLA or USC.
Backdoor Roth — critical for Cedars physicians
Because Cedars-Sinai offers no 457(b), the Backdoor Roth IRA ($7,500 per person, $8,500 at 50+) plays a more central role in the overall savings strategy for Cedars physicians than it does for UCLA or USC colleagues. For a married couple, $15,000/year of after-tax Roth accumulation — compounded over 20 years at 7% — produces approximately $615,000 in tax-free assets. This is significant when the rest of the portfolio will be taxable at distribution.
The pro-rata rule applies here too: if you have any pre-tax IRA balances, the Backdoor Roth conversion will be partially taxable. The solution depends on whether Cedars-Sinai's 403(b) accepts incoming rollovers from pre-tax IRAs — we verify this and sequence accordingly.
Choice Retirement modeling · Blueprint while employed · Post-separation rollover
For new Cedars-Sinai physicians, we provide a dedicated Choice Retirement analysis before the 30-day election window closes — projecting lifetime income under the DB plan vs. total projected portfolio value under the DC plan, across multiple tenure and longevity scenarios. This is the most important engagement we do for Cedars physicians, and it's time-sensitive.
While employed, Qubera provides a written blueprint for your Voya 403(b) — fund selection, contribution level to capture the full match, and Backdoor Roth IRA implementation alongside the employer plan. After separation, we coordinate the 403(b) rollover to Schwab and manage the assets directly.
What we fix in the first engagement
Making the DB/DC election without analysis
Most new Cedars-Sinai physicians don't realize that the Choice Retirement election is permanent. They make the decision in the first week of employment, while still getting oriented, without projecting the financial implications of each path. We've helped physicians who were about to guess their way through this choice — and found that in several cases, the "intuitive" choice was the wrong one given their career plans and retirement timeline.
Contributing less than 6% to the 403(b)
The Cedars employer match requires the physician to contribute at least 6% to the 403(b) to receive the full match. Physicians who are managing cash flow — student loans, mortgage, children's expenses — sometimes contribute less than 6%, forfeiting the employer match in the process. We help model whether the employer match capture (effectively a 100% return on your contribution up to 6%) should take priority over loan prepayment or other competing goals.
Not compensating for the missing 457(b)
Cedars physicians who came from UCLA or USC — or who have colleagues at those institutions — sometimes don't realize they're missing $24,500 of annual pre-tax deferral capacity by not having a 457(b). This gap is $11,250–$13,500 per year in actual tax savings at combined rates. We build explicit after-tax strategies — Backdoor Roth, HSA, taxable account asset location — to close part of that gap systematically.
What Cedars-Sinai physicians ask before working with us
Not at Cedars-Sinai?
Each employer's retirement plan is different. Find yours below.
UCLA Health
Governmental 457(b) that rolls to IRA, UC DCP Mega Backdoor Roth (~$45K/yr)
UCLA breakdown →USC Keck
Non-governmental 457(b) distribution election trap, TIAA 403(b) strategy
USC Keck breakdown →Kaiser Permanente (SCPMG)
Keogh contribution election, PCRA at Schwab, managed while employed
Kaiser breakdown →New to Cedars-Sinai? Let's review your Choice Retirement election before the window closes.
If you're within 30 days of your start date, don't elect yet. A 30-minute call is all it takes to model both paths and make this decision with the right information. If you've already elected, we'll build around what you have.
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