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TRS Supplemental Savings Plan (SSP)

The Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) of Illinois offers a special Supplemental Savings Plan (SSP). The TRS SSP is a 457(b) plan managed by TRS and Voya Financial, and so follows all the same procedures described in 403(b) and 457(b) plans. This article focuses on what is unique about the TRS SSP payroll items.

The basic process of setting up TRS SSP plans is:

  1. Receive a deferral report from TRS and identify what plan the employee is enrolled in
  2. Record the employee’s enrollment in a 457(b) plan
  3. Set up the appropriate District Payroll Item for that plan
  4. Add the payroll item to the Employee
  5. After each payroll run, submit the Defined Contributions report to TRS through the Gemini website
  6. Record the payment you made through Gemini in SchoolInsight Financials

1. Deferral Report

When an employee elects to enroll in TRS SSP, you will receive a notification from TRS with the employee’s name, contribution category, and contribution amount. It is your responsibility to ensure that this deduction is added to their payroll as soon as administratively possible.

Although default TRS SSP items have been added to every district, for convenience we have included a chart explaining the different settings used for the different contribution categories.

TRS Contribution Category TRS Contribution Category Description Calculation Step Item Type Subtotal Types
03 SSP Pretax Pre-Tax Deduction 457b SSP - Employee

Tax “-”

Does Not Contribute other five
04 SSP Pretax Catch-Up Pre-Tax Deduction 457b SSP - Employee - Regular Catch-Up

Tax “-”

Does Not Contribute other five
05 SSP Pretax Special Catch-Up Pre-Tax Deduction 457b SSP - Employee - Special Catch-Up

Tax “-”

Does Not Contribute other five
06 SSP Roth Post-Tax Deduction 457b Roth SSP - Employee  Does Not Contribute all six
07 SSP Roth Catch-Up Post-Tax Deduction 457b Roth SSP - Employee - Regular Catch-Up Does Not Contribute all six
08 SSP Roth Special Catch-Up Post-Tax Deduction 457b Roth SSP - Employee - Special Catch-Up Does Not Contribute all six
03 SSP Pretax Non-Taxable Benefit 457b SSP - Employer

TRS “+”

Does Not Contribute other five

 

NOTE: The last row is used for cases where the district makes a discretionary contribution on behalf of employees. It is not a deferral from employee pay, and would not show up in the deferral report.

2. Plan Enrollment

Any employee who participates in a 457(b) plan should have that enrollment indicated in the Retirement tab of Employee - Single View. Without the appropriate enrollment, you will not be able to add a 457(b) payroll item to that employee.

See 403(b) and 457(b) plans for exact instructions.

3. District Payroll Items

Every Illinois district should automatically have seven DPIs starting with “TRS 457(b)” added to their account: three pre-tax deductions, three post-tax (Roth) deductions, and one non-taxable benefit. The three items for each deduction are:

  • Normal contributions
  • Regular Catch-Up contributions
  • Special Catch-Up contributions

The non-taxable benefit is for discretionary employer contributions made by the district. All employer contributions will be added to a pre-tax, non-catch-up 457(b) plan.

These payroll items will use almost the same settings as their non-TRS SSP counterparts. There are only a few differences:

  1. The field Report to TRS must be checked so that the contributions can be included in the Gemini report.
  2. The Vendor should be Voya Financial.
  3. We recommend using a unique liability function (IL)/object (MO) for SSP plans.

See 403(b) and 457(b) plans for exact instructions about editing payroll items, creating vendors, and creating new functions/objects and accounts.

If any employee defers a percentage of their paycheck instead of a simple amount, you can create a new payroll item with the District Percentage algorithm.

4. Employee Payroll Items

Once the Pre-Configuration steps and District Payroll Items from instructions in 403(b) and 457(b) plans are complete, you can add the TRS SSP District Payroll Items to the employees. In the Payroll tab of Employee Single View, add the payroll items that are applicable to the employee and set the amount or percentage that should be deferred or contributed.

5. TRS Report

TRS 457(b) SSP deferral/contribution data must be uploaded to Gemini with every payroll run. SchoolInsight’s TRS Gemini File, which can be generated for every payroll run, will include both the required defined benefit (TRS/THIS) details and the optional defined contribution (SSP) details.

To generate the report with SSP details:

  1. Go to Financials Main > Payroll > Payroll Runs
  2. Next to a payroll run, click the down arrow and select Download TRS Gemini File
  3. If there are no errors, Download File

This file can be uploaded to the Gemini website. 

6. Liability Payment

After reviewing and submitting the data through Gemini, you will be asked to make a payment for the TRS SSP contributions. Once the payment is finalized, record that payment in SchoolInsight Financials:

  1. Go to Financials Main > Payroll > Payroll Runs
  2. Next to a payroll run, click the down arrow and select Liabilities
  3. Click Pay next to the Voya Financial liability
  4. Enter the payment details, including adjusting the amount with a Custom Payment if the predicted liability amount does not match what was withdrawn from your bank account.

See Payroll liabilities for more information about recording payments.