Question:   The 403(b) and 457(b) maximum deferral limits change every year. What are the maximum limits for 2005?

Answer:  These retirement plan deferral limits are set by the Internal Revenue Service. For 2005, the maximum you can defer to your 403(b) or 457(b) account is $14,000. If you have both a 403(b) and a 457(b) account, you may contribute $14,000 to each. If you will be age 50 by December 31, 2005, may contribute an additional $4,000. If you have at least 15 years of full-time equivalent service with the University, you may be eligible for a special 403(b) catch up provision. If you qualify, you may defer an additional $3,000 per year, for five years.

Question:  Are emergency travel services provided under any of the University’s benefit plans?

Answer:   Both the group accidental death and dismemberment policy, underwritten by The Transamerica Life Companies, and the group term life insurance plan, underwritten by Beneficial Life Insurance Company, now provide benefits for global emergency services. Beneficial Life Insurance Company recently created an alliance with Assist America, a provider of global emergency travel services. Some of the services provided by Transamerica and Beneficial Life (Assist America) are: medical evaluation and referral, emergency medical evacuation, medically supervised repatriation, and prescription assistance. Later this month, you will receive information on the Assist America benefits via U.S. Mail.

Question:   Is there a maximum amount of vacation that may be carried over at year-end?

Answer:   Vacation hours that carry forward to the new calendar year are limited to 240 hours plus the employee’s current annual vacation leave entitlement. Any accrued leave in excess of the maximum will be forfeited and eliminated from the employee’s accrued vacation leave balance at year-end. This carry-over provision does not apply to faculty members, senior administrative officers, senior academic officers, postdoctoral fellows, and medical housestaff. Please refer to University of Utah Vacation Leave Policy (2-41) for the specific details.

Question:  Can sick leave be converted to vacation?

Answer:   Benefits eligible employees, except faculty, senior administrative officers, senior academic officers, postdoctoral fellows, and medical housestaff may convert up to four days (32 hours) of accrued sick leave to vacation annually, subject to the conditions documented in University of Utah Human Resources Policy 2-21. (Leaves of Absence, Health-Related). If you accumulated 48 days (384 hours) of sick leave by January 1, 2004 and during the 2004 calendar year used fewer than four days of sick leave (32 hours) you may be eligible to convert sick hours to vacation hours. Conversion of sick leave will not increase the maximum allowable limits on vacation accrual. The conversion process is automatic unless you request in writing to the Benefits Department not to convert your sick hours to vacation hours.

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2005 Holiday Schedule