12 Essential Questions and Answers Every Ascension Physician Should Know About Their Ascension Healthcare Retirement Plan
- Daniel Harris
- 4 minutes ago
- 6 min read
1) What is the Ascension Healthcare Employer Contribution Account?
The Ascension Healthcare Employer Contribution Account is part of your retirement plan at Ascension. Essentially, the Ascension Healthcare Employer Contribution Account is where Ascension deposits its contributions to your defined contribution retirement plan. A defined contribution retirement plan is a plan where what is put into the plan is known but what comes out of it in retirement can vary based on investment performance.
According to our research, both 403(b) matching contributions and other employer contributions go into the Employer Contribution Account at your Ascension Retirement Plan.
2) What is the Ascension Healthcare 401(k) match?
As of this writing on 5/8/25, we believe that the Ascension 401(k) match is half of your first 6% in contributions or 3%.
3) What is the Ascension Healthcare 403(b) Plan?
The Ascension Healthcare 403(b) is a qualified retirement plan for nonprofit employers. The main difference between a 403(b) plan and a 401(k) plan for for-profit employers is that 403(b) plans are typically restricted to mutual funds only, whereas 401(k) plans can invest in mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and individual securities.
While mutual funds can be decent options at providers like Vanguard or Fidelity, they are generally less cost-effective than ETFs or individual securities due to higher fees. Most firms—including Charles Schwab—offer some low-cost mutual funds through Personal Choice Retirement Accounts, but the options are far more limited compared to what’s available to employees on the for-profit side of Ascension Healthcare, who aren’t legally restricted to mutual funds.
You might wonder why 403(b) plans are limited to mutual funds while 401(k) plans offer a broader range of investments. This restriction largely stems from congressional decisions made years ago, based on the belief that nonprofit employees might need more protection due to perceived lower financial sophistication. In reality, however, many employees at nonprofits—especially hospitals and universities—are among the most educated and financially savvy, so that thinking may be outdated.
4) What is the match on the Ascension Healthcare 403(b) contribution?
Ascension matches 50% of the first 6% in contribution in the 403(b) as of this writing on 5/8/25.
5) What is the Ascension Healthcare 403(b) contribution limit?
According to our knowledge, in 2025, employees under age 50 can contribute up to $23,500 to a 403(b) plan. Those 50 or older can contribute up to $31,000 with a $7,500 catch-up. Employees aged 60–63 can contribute up to $34,750 under a special catch-up rule from the SECURE 2.0 Act. These contribution limits are set by federal law and may change annually.
6) What is the Ascension Healthcare Defined Benefit Pension Plan?
Ascension Healthcare does have a defined benefit plan as of 5/8/25, according to our research, and to our knowledge, it is not frozen.
A defined benefit pension plan pays you a fixed amount of money—typically based on a portion of your salary, up to a limit—for the rest of your life once you retire. In this way, it’s somewhat like Social Security: your benefit is predictable, and the employer—not you—bears the investment risk. If the plan’s investments underperform, your payout isn’t affected, assuming the employer can make up the difference with additional contributions.
Contrary to popular belief, defined benefit pension plans were never that widespread in the U.S. (i.e. the majority of non-government employees did not have defined benefit pension plans in the 1950s or something like that according to our research), and they’ve become even less common over time. That’s because employers need relatively stable long-term cash flow to support these plans.
Programs like Social Security work to some extent because they have predictable funding each year. However, if cash flows become unpredictable or profits decline for too long, many employers freeze their defined benefit plans and close them to new employees. This has been a growing trend across industries for nearly two decades.
Still, it’s a valuable benefit to have. I’ve heard that for some employees at Ascension, the pension payout can be as high as 80% of their salary. Be sure to check with your employer or HR department to determine your specific benefits under Ascension Healthcare’s Defined Benefit Pension Plan.
7) Is the Ascension Healthcare Defined Benefit Pension Plan a good plan?
In our view, the Ascension Healthcare Defined Benefit Plan is a strong offering for two key reasons. First, defined benefit pensions are increasingly rare outside of government employment, so Ascension employees who are covered by this plan are fortunate to have access to such a benefit.
Second, Ascension Healthcare appears to be well-managed and financially stable. As of 10/7/24, we believe some of its bonds carry a AA rating, which is considered very strong. For context, bond ratings with an “A” are generally excellent, “B” ratings carry moderate risk, and “C” ratings are high risk. A AA rating—roughly equivalent to an A grade in school—reflects confidence from rating agencies in Ascension’s financial health and its ability to meet pension obligations.
8) Who is the contact person for the Defined Benefit Pension Plan at Ascension?
To our knowledge the contact person for the defined benefit plan at Ascension is Christoper Belcher, Director of Retirement Administration at Ascension Health. If you work at Ascension you’ll be able to find his contact information through your internal directory.
His Linkedin profile is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-belcher-8ab21215
9). Are the benefits at Ascension Healthcare good enough to offset the lower pay compared to some other healthcare systems?
Ascension Healthcare is known to pay a little less well than some of their competitors. But part of this is because the benefits may be better, especially the retirement plan.
10) Is the 401(k) and 403(b) match comparable to other systems?
They are pretty much in line with industry averages, but with a defined benefit pension plan the total employer contribution may be higher.
11) How are the investments in the Ascension Healthcare 401(k) and 403(b) plans?
Overall, the investment options are very good in our view. They have a number of low cost index funds and a Schwab Personal Choice Retirement Account (PCRA). In a 401(k) a Schwab PCRA is as good as it gets in our view. In a 403(b) Schwab’s PCRA is not quite as strong as Vanguard’s Brokerage Option or Fidelity’s BrokerageLink Account in our experience, but it is still pretty good.
12) What about the managed advice option in the Ascension 403(b) and 401(k) plans?
The managed advice option available through the Ascension 403(b) and 401(k) plans is competitively priced relative to other in-plan solutions we’ve seen, and the firms providing the service are generally reputable. That said, many clients we've worked with previously used this service before seeking more comprehensive financial guidance—and found it offered limited impact on their overall financial outcomes.
In our experience, advice delivered within a retirement plan is often designed to be cost-efficient, which can mean the scope is quite narrow—typically limited to a basic asset allocation for one or two accounts. In this sense, it can resemble a target-date fund more than a personalized advisory relationship.
A helpful analogy might be a doctor’s visit: a typical visit in the U.S. lasts around 20 minutes, allowing time for meaningful interaction. If that were reduced to 6 minutes in order to lower the cost, the number of patients seen could triple, but the quality of care and personal attention would likely suffer. Similarly, in-plan financial advisors are often tasked with serving a significantly larger number of participants than independent advisors, which can limit the depth and frequency of engagement.
This isn't inherently a bad model—it’s simply optimized for scale and affordability rather than individualized attention. For some people, that’s enough. But in our view, clients often benefit more from an advisor relationship where there’s time to address broader financial questions, tailor strategies, and build continuity over time.
We’ve had many clients come to us after using in-plan advice services, and a common theme is that despite paying ongoing fees, they had minimal interaction or personalized guidance. That’s something we aim to change by offering more focused, responsive service.
About Daniel Harris
Daniel Harris is the founder of D.R. Harris & Co., a Stanford and UC Berkeley Law graduate, and a trusted advisor to doctors facing complex financial challenges in today’s healthcare landscape. Learn more about Daniel here.
Who We Serve: We provide specialized financial planning for physicians at two pivotal career stages:
Pre-retiree and retiree physicians (typically age 50 and up) who are preparing to transition into retirement and want to convert their assets into a sustainable, tax-efficient income plan.
Early-career physicians (typically age 30–45) who are in completing training and stepping into their first attending roles—looking to build a strong financial foundation, buy a home, grow their families, manage debt, and start investing with confidence.
Disclosure: This article is written for educational and entertainment purposes only. We are not your financial advisor unless you have a signed written advisory agreement with us. We believe the information in this article is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time it was written, but before acting on any of the information you read in this article, you should verify all our statements independently with your own professional advisors and by doing your own independent research. You can generally find information about your retirement plan in your plan document, your participant fee disclosure, or from your employer’s HR or benefits departments. These are generally the most authoritative sources as our information may be incorrect or out of date, despite our best efforts to provide you with accurate information. Please verify all this information with your employer before acting on anything you read about in this article.
