Compliance November 2, 2023

Maximum Benefit and Contribution Limits Table 2024

Maximum Benefit/Contribution Limits for 2019 through 2024, with a downloadable PDF of limits from 2014 to 2024.

Reported by
Maximum Benefit/Contribution Limits for 2019-2024
 As Published by the Internal Revenue Service


PDF of Maximum Benefit/Contribution Limits for 2014-2024 available here.

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202420232022202120202019
Elective Deferrals (401k
& 403b plans) 		$23,000$22,500$20,500$19,500$19,500$19,000
Annual Benefit Limit $275,000$265,000$245,000$230,000$230,000$225,000
Annual Contribution Limit $69,000$66,000$61,000$58,000$57,000$56,000
Annual Compensation Limit $345,000$330,000$305,000$290,000$285,000$280,000
457(b) Deferral Limit $23,000$22,500$20,500$19,500$19,500$19,000
Highly Compensated Threshold $155,000$150,000$135,000$130,000$130,000$125,000
SIMPLE Contribution Limit $16,000$15,500$14,000$13,500$13,500$13,000
SEP Coverage Limit $750$750$650$600$600$600
SEP Compensation Limit $345,000$330,000$305,000$290,000$285,000$280,000
Income
Subject to
Social Security 		$168,600$160,200$147,000$142,800$137,700$132,900
Top-Heavy Plan Key Employee Comp $220,000$215,000$200,000$185,000$185,000$180,000
Catch-Up Contributions

$7,500

$7,500

$6,500

$6,500

$6,500

$6,000
SIMPLE Catch-Up Contributions $3,500$3,500$3,000$3,000$3,000$3,000

The Elective Deferral Limit is the maximum contribution that can be made on a pre-tax basis to a 401(k) or 403(b) plan (Internal Revenue Code section 402(g)(1)). Some still refer to this as the $7,000 limit (its original setting in 1987).

The Annual Benefit Limit is the maximum annual benefit that can be paid to a participant (IRC section 415). The limit applied is actually the lessor of the dollar limit above or 100% of the participant’s average compensation (generally the high three consecutive years of service). The participant compensation level is also subjected to the Annual Compensation Limit noted below.

The Annual Contribution Limit is the maximum annual contribution amount that can be made to a participant’s account (IRC section 415). This limit is actually expressed as the lessor of the dollar limit or 100% of the participant’s compensation, applied to the combination of employee contributions, employer contributions and forfeitures allocated to a participant’s account.

In calculating contribution allocations, a plan cannot consider any employee compensation in excess of the Annual Compensation Limit (401(a)(17)). This limit is also imposed in determining the Annual Benefit Limit (above). In calculating certain nondiscrimination tests (such as the Actual Deferral Percentage), all participant compensation is limited to this amount, for purposes of the calculation.

The 457 Deferral Limit is a similar restriction, applied to certain government plans (457 plans).

The Highly Compensated Threshold (section 414(q)(1)(B)) is the minimum compensation level established to determine highly compensated employees for purposes of nondiscrimination testing.

The SIMPLE Contribution Limit is the maximum annual contribution that can be made to a SIMPLE (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees) plan. SIMPLE plans are simplified retirement plans for small businesses that allow employees to make elective contributions, while requiring employers to make matching or nonelective contributions.

SEP Coverage Limit is the minimum earnings level for a self-employed individual to qualify for coverage by a Simplified Employee Pension plan (a special individual retirement account to which the employer makes direct tax-deductible contributions.

The SEP Compensation Limit is applied in determining the maximum contributions made to the plan.

EGTRRA also added the Top-heavy plan key employee compensation limit.

Catch up Contributions, SIMPLE “Catch up” deferral: Under the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), certain individuals aged 50 or over can now make so-called ‘catch up’ contributions, in addition to the above limits.

Benefits November 2, 2023

Unum Group Plans to Add Guaranteed Lifetime Income Options

The financial insurance provider will roll out in early 2024 the option to transfer a percentage of their savings into an annuity, with another offering to follow in 2025.

Reported by

At financial insurance provider Unum Group, selecting retirement income options to implement for its plan participants—from the multiple options available—meant no single option would do.

Unum is planning to add to its 401(k) plan two guaranteed lifetime income options, expecting to implement in-plan annuities “by the end of the first quarter” of 2024, says Carl Gagnon, Unum’s assistant vice president for global financial well-being and retirement programs, and Ben Roberge, the company’s director of financial and retirement programs.

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“The first piece that’s going to go live will be a marketplace where our retirees will have the option to take a portion of their retirement income or their retirement savings and transfer that into an annuity,” Roberge says.

Unum plans to add a second guaranteed lifetime income offering in early 2025.

“We thought [that], based on our population, [what] would be helpful was something on the deferred side, so a [qualified longevity annuity contract],” Roberge says. “We explored a lot of options, and that’s one of the pieces that we’re also going to add. When evaluating the two, we decided that more than one guaranteed solution was actually the right fit for our [plan], in combination with a nonguaranteed solution that we already had in place.”

In 2021, Unum added a nonguaranteed Fidelity Investments systematic withdrawal program to its 401(k) plan. At the time, “we also started considering the guaranteed side as well, because we [have] a frozen pension plan,” Roberge says.

Adding retirement income options culminates a multi-year journey of evaluating the available options and their fit for Unum’s workforce.

Unum plans to target—with communications about the guaranteed options—plan participants who are nearer to retirement through intranet messages, email and postal mail, Roberge says.

Unum has “leveraged one of our partners which is a dedicated financial concierge service through Brightside, where [participants] can speak with a real human that is a financial consultant on the other end to help educate them on the retirement income options that are available,” Roberge says.

For Unum, incorporating options for participants to consider was key as it examined retirement income possibilities.

“We were really looking to be as comprehensive as possible,” says Roberge.   

Adding guaranteed options required submitting requests for proposal, learning from the plan’s existing investment consultants at Aon, coordinating meetings with the plan’s fiduciary and finance committees and consultants, and securing the specialized support of consultant &Co Consulting, Roberge says.

“We brought forward a number of solutions from the RFP that we thought, based on cost and structure, would fit well into our plan for our demographics,” Roberge says. ”Then we selected a group of finalists from that—that met all those criteria—brought them all in for finalist presentations in front of the committee. We then had a separate debrief meeting, after those finalist meetings, to select the options and come forward with a recommendation that made the most sense for our plan.”

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