403(b) Plan: Introduction

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By Denise Appleby

What Is a 403(b) Plan?
A 403(b) plan is a retirement plan for certain public school employees, employees of tax-exempt organizations and ministers. Individual 403(b) accounts are established and maintained by eligible employees.

Accounts under a 403(b) plan can be one of the three following types:

  • An annuity contract provided through an insurance company; these 403(b) annuity plans are also known as tax-sheltered annuities (TSAs) and tax-deferred annuities (TDAs).
  • A custodial account provided through a retirement account custodian; investments are limited to regulated investment companies, such as mutual funds.
  • A retirement income account, for which investments options are either annuities or mutual funds.
The employer may determine the financial institution(s) at which individual employees may maintain their 403(b) accounts, which in turn determines the type of 403(b) accounts that the employees may establish and fund.

Why Establish a 403(b) Account?
The following are advantages of maintaining a 403(b) plan or account:

For the employer:

  • Attractive benefits that help keep high-quality employees happy.
  • A shared cost of funding between employers and employees (in some cases, only employees contribute to the 403(b) plan).

For the employee:



  • Reduced taxable income through pretax contributions,
  • Tax-deferred earnings on plan contributions. If the contributions are made to a Roth 403(b) account, earnings can be tax-free.
  • The likelihood of paying less tax on assets as distributions usually occur during retirement, when an employee may be in a lower tax bracket.
  • The ability to take loans from the 403(b) accounts.

Next: 403(b) Plan: Eligibility Requirements »


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Denise Appleby

Denise Appleby
Denise Appleby is founder and owner of Appleby Retirement Consulting,which provides technical consultation, content, coaching, writing, editing and training services on related topics.


With more than 14 years of experience in the IRA and defined-contribution plans fields, Appleby has held several senior retirement-plan related positions with Pershing LLC, which included vice president of plans products and services, retirement plans manager, trainer, training manager, compliance consultant, technical help desk manager and writer.

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