The State of Illinois Deferred Compensation Plan is a supplemental retirement program for State employees. Contributions to the Plan can be made on a pre-tax or Roth basis through salary deferrals. The combined pre-tax and Roth contributions cannot exceed the limit set by the IRS.
Roth IRA is a great option because your contributions are accessable if you need to get to them unlike the 401k.
From a high level, the sponsor of a 401(k) plan is the entity that establishes retirement plans for a company and its employees. Normally, the 401(k) plan sponsor is the employer itself, a union, or a selected employee of the firm.
Deferred compensation is often considered better than a 401(k) for highly-compensated executives looking to reduce their tax burden. Contribution limits on deferred compensation plans can also be much higher than 401(k) limits.
Once distributions begin, the distributed monies are fully taxable as ordinary income for federal tax purposes. The funds are never taxed by the State of Illinois.
The normal contribution limit for elective deferrals to a 457 deferred compensation plan is $23,500. Employees age 50 or older may contribute up to an additional $7,500 for a total of $31,000.
Deferred compensation is a written agreement between an employer and an employee where the employee voluntarily agrees to have part of their compensation withheld by the company, invested on their behalf, and given to them at some pre-specified point in the future.
401(k) plans and 403(b) plans offer very similar benefits. As such, one isn't really better than the other. The main difference is that each plan is offered to employees of different types of companies. Another key difference between the plans is that 403(b) plans also offer a $15,000 catch-up.