The Kaiser Permanente SCPMG Keogh Election Is Made Once. What It Depends On.

The SCPMG Keogh Plan is a qualified defined contribution plan for Partner Physicians. You generally become eligible to contribute on the later of becoming a Partner or completing two years of service. The decision about whether to take part, and at what level, is generally made earlier than that, while you are an Associate Physician.

The plan's summary plan description sets the window. If you were hired as an Associate, you may enroll at any time during your first 180 days. If you started as a Per Diem Physician, the deadline depends on how long you worked per diem and when in the year you transferred. In either case the enrollment period generally ends just before you first become eligible for the 401(k) Plan.

There are four contribution levels: 25%, 50%, 70% or 100% of the contribution percentage the plan sets each year. Not enrolling is a fifth outcome, and the plan's audited financial statements list it that way, as 0%. Whichever you land on is irrevocable. The summary plan description says you cannot move from one level to another, contributions cannot be suspended for any reason, and missing the deadline means you elected not to contribute, a decision that cannot be changed in the future.

That permanence is why this page names no level, no range and no direction. A choice that binds every year of a partnership depends on income, household, other savings and plans that sit outside SCPMG entirely. Any lean offered without those is a guess, and on a decision you cannot revisit, a guess is the wrong kind of help.

It binds a career you cannot see yet. The level chosen as an Associate governs every year as a Partner. Income, household and plans outside SCPMG will change over that span. The level will not.

It is a rate, not a dollar amount. The actuarially set percentage and your Eligible Earnings both move from year to year, and the Year-End Performance Draw is part of those earnings, so the same level can mean quite different sums.

It shares a limit. Keogh contributions count toward the same annual limit as everything you put into the 401(k) Plan. A higher Keogh level uses more of that limit, and a lower one leaves more of it for the 401(k) Plan, including the traditional after-tax contributions described below.

The tax treatment differs. Keogh contributions are pre-tax. The 401(k) Plan offers traditional pre-tax, Roth and traditional after-tax contributions, so the balance between the two plans also shapes how much of your savings is taxed going in and how much coming out.

It cannot be paused. Once you are in, contributions cannot be suspended for any reason, so the level has to be one you can sustain in lean years as well as good ones.

Which way those net out depends on facts this page does not have. That is the conversation worth having before the window closes, not after it.

Total combined contributions to the Keogh, the 401(k) Plan for Permanente Medical Groups and any other SCPMG-sponsored qualified defined contribution plan cannot exceed the lesser of 100% of your earnings for the plan year or the IRS dollar limit for that year. Both summary plan descriptions say contributions may be stopped once the combined total reaches the limit, or refunded if it goes over.

Inside the 401(k) Plan, traditional pre-tax and Roth contributions also have their own annual cap, and from the calendar year you turn 50 you can add catch-up contributions, which the 401(k) Plan's summary plan description says do not count against the combined limit. This page does not quote dollar limits, because the IRS resets them each year. The plan's own document points readers to irs.gov for the current figures.

The 401(k) Plan also accepts traditional after-tax contributions and allows in-plan Roth rollovers, which convert pre-tax, rollover or traditional after-tax balances into the plan's Roth account. Each conversion is irrevocable, is taxable to the extent it converts pre-tax money, and starts its own five-year period. How much room there is for after-tax contributions in a given year depends on how much of the combined limit the Keogh and your other 401(k) contributions have already used.

Two plan rules catch people. Traditional after-tax contributions elected as an Associate stop when you become a Partner, and you have to re-enroll to restart them. And federal discrimination testing can require highly compensated participants' deferrals or after-tax contributions to be reduced, or partly refunded, for a year.

The Keogh's summary plan description refers to "the self-directed fund (the PCRA)", and the plan's audited financial statements describe self-directed brokerage accounts in which participants choose individual securities, limited to classes of investments set by the Retirement Committee. Schwab is the plan's recordkeeper.

The 401(k) Plan's summary plan description is more specific. You may invest up to 50% of your 401(k) account in the Schwab Personal Choice Retirement Account. It is optional, it may carry additional fees, and it requires an online application. As of May 2023 it excluded, among other things, private placements, limited and master limited partnerships, cryptocurrency, uncovered options, and any securities issued by SCPMG or an affiliated organization.

It is not a niche feature here. The master trust that holds the Keogh together with one other SCPMG plan reported $2.04 billion in self-directed brokerage accounts at the end of 2024, out of $8.76 billion in total.

If you never choose, contributions to either plan go to the age-appropriate Vanguard Target Retirement Trust for the year you turn 65. A brokerage window is a decision to make deliberately, not a feature to use because it is there.

For the Keogh, a Summary of Material Modifications dated April 2023 states that effective April 1, 2023, you may receive a distribution of your Keogh Plan account at any time after you terminate from SCPMG. That is the statement this page relies on, and it goes no further.

For the 401(k) Plan, the May 2023 summary plan description states that your account can be distributed upon your separation from SCPMG.

In both plans a balance of $1,000 or less is paid automatically as a lump sum. Above that, you choose a lump sum or monthly, quarterly or annual installments. You do not have to take a distribution when you first can: both plans describe deferring it until as late as April 1 following the year you reach 73, or 72 if you reached 72 before January 1, 2023, or 70 1/2 if you reached 70 1/2 before January 1, 2020.

Stepping back from partnership is not always stopping work. Former Partners who continue as a Partner Emeritus or a Per Diem Physician remain eligible for the 401(k) Plan, and in certain cases a Partner Emeritus can continue in the Keogh. How the date you step back, the date you stop entirely and the order you draw the two accounts in fit together is a sequencing question more than a plan question, and it is the one your retirement date actually turns on.

Any benefit other than the SCPMG Keogh Plan and the 401(k) Plan for Permanente Medical Groups. We have not found public plan documents for other benefits that meet the standard this page is written to, so they are left out rather than summarised from secondhand material.

The Keogh contribution percentage for any particular year. It is set annually by an actuary and not published.

Current IRS dollar limits. They change every year and are published at irs.gov.

Anything newer than the documents. The Keogh summary plan description is dated April 2019, with changes summarised in April, June and July 2023, and the 401(k) Plan's is dated May 2023. Either plan may have changed since, and where a summary and the plan document differ, the plan document governs. Your Benefits Handbook for Partners and Associate Physicians and Schwab Participant Services are where to confirm what applies to you.