How the 401(k) Plan Works
The Methodist Health System 401(k) Plan helps you contribute and invest to help build financial security for retirement.
Here are the plan's key features
Eligibility
You can enroll in the Methodist Health System 401(k) Plan at any time by logging in to NetBenefits®.
Automatic Enrollment
If you do not make an affirmative election to contribute to the Salary Reduction Contribution, you will be automatically enrolled at a three percent (3%) pre-tax contribution rate. On May 1 each year, your pre-tax contribution will automatically increase by 1%, up to a maximum of 10% if you do not change your election.
Your contributions will be invested in the Plan’s default fund, one of the Target Date Funds. Target Date Funds are a mix of stocks, bonds, and other investments that automatically become more conservative as the fund approaches its target retirement date and beyond. Principal invested is not guaranteed.
Your Contributions
You can contribute from 1%-100% of your eligible base pay as pre-tax or Roth contributions, up to the annual IRS dollar limits.
Pre-tax: Pre-tax contributions are deducted from your pay before income taxes are taken out. You’ll pay taxes on these contributions and on any investment earnings when you make a withdrawal. The 2026 IRS standard contribution limit is $24,500.
Roth: Roth contributions are deducted from your pay after income taxes are taken out. Contributions and any investment earnings are tax-free, as long as they are part of a qualified distribution. A qualified distribution means it’s been at least 5 years from the first of the year in which the first Roth contribution was made and one of the following conditions has been met: age 59 1/2, disability, or death. The 2026 IRS standard contribution limit is $24,500.
Catch-Up: If you are age 50 or older by the end of 2026, catch-up contributions allow you to save above the standard combined pre-tax/Roth IRS limit. The 2026 IRS contribution limit for catch-up contributions is $8,000.
Super Catch-Up: Under a change made in SECURE 2.0, a higher catch-up contribution limit applies for employees aged 60, 61, 62 and 63 by the end of 2026. For 2026, this higher catch-up contribution limit is $11,250.
New Roth Catch-Up Rules: A new rule introduced in the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) 2.0 Act may change how you contribute catch-up dollars to Methodist Health System 401(k) plan in 2026.
Beginning January 1, 2026, any catch-up contributions that you make must be on a Roth (after-tax) basis if you meet the following guidelines.
- You earned more than $150,000* in FICA wages (W-2 Box 3“Social Security Wages”) from Nebraska Methodist Health System in the previous year, and
- Your pre-tax contributions to the Methodist Health System 401(k) plan reach the IRS standard limit which is $24,500 for 2026.
If the guidelines above apply to you, Nebraska Methodist Health System will continue to deduct 401(k) contributions based on your elections and attribue them to the plan as Roth (after tax) catch-up contributions. If you do not wish to make Roth catch-up contributions, you will need to adjust your contribution elections on NetBenefits after meeting your pre-tax contribution goals for the year.
*indexed annually
Annual Increase Program
The Methodist Health System 401(k) Plan offers the option to designate your own annual increase percent. You may also make changes to your annual increase amount at any time.
Employer Matching Contributions
Methodist Health System will match 100% of the first 6% of pre-tax and/or Roth contributions you make to the Plan.
Employer Base Contributions
If you meet the eligibility criteria, you may also receive additional employer base contributions:
Base contributions. You may receive base contributions each year added to your account. This amount is a percentage of your pay for that specific year and depends on how many years you have worked, according to the schedule below.
Years of Accrual Service at End of Plan Year
1-5
6-15
16 or more
Base Contributions Percentage of Compensation
1%
2%
3%
Vesting
You are always 100% vested in your own contributions to your Plan, as well as any earnings on them.
A year of vesting for employer contributions is a year in which you work 1,000 hours. Employer contributions will vest according to the following schedule:
| Years of Service | % Vested |
| 0 | 0% |
| 1 | 0% |
| 2 | 100% |
Rollovers
You can roll over eligible pre-tax contributions from another 401(k) plan, 403(b) plan, or governmental 457(b) retirement plan, or eligible pre-tax contributions from non-conduit or conduit individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Rollovers from Roth sources are allowed. A conduit IRA is one that contains only money rolled over from an employer-sponsored retirement plan that has not been mixed with regular IRA contributions.
Be sure to consider all of your available options and the applicable fees and features of each before moving your retirement assets.
Withdrawals
Withdrawals from the Plan are generally permitted when you attain age 59½, terminate your employment, retire, become permanently disabled, or have severe financial hardship as defined by the Plan. Refer to the Summary Plan Description or call Fidelity for more details.
Beneficiaries
If you have not already selected your beneficiaries, or if you have experienced a life-changing event such as a marriage, divorce, birth of a child, or a death in the family, be sure to update your beneficiary designations. Log in to NetBenefits®,to add, update, or review your beneficiaries now.