Readiness for Retirement Savings Matching Program
We all want rostered ministers to be satisfied and effective in their ministry. This helps serve God’s mission in the world. For many rostered ministers, financial stress, frequently due to a lack of retirement savings, stands in the way.
To address this challenge, Resourceful Servants offers the Readiness for Retirement Savings Matching program. This program partners with rostered ministers to encourage a habit of saving by providing matching funding to more rapidly grow retirement accounts.
This increase in savings, in turn, increases financial comfort, which contributes to satisfaction and effectiveness in ministry.
Readiness for Retirement Program
Eligible rostered ministers have the opportunity to build up their retirement savings. Recipients’ increased individual contributions of $600 to their ELCA retirement plan accounts with Portico are matched dollar for dollar, for a period of one-year.
For the average ELCA rostered minister, the estimated value of this total investment at retirement is over $4,000. Matching funding is provided through generous donations from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., and the employees and trustees of Portico Benefit Services.
ELCA rostered ministers serving a call who have less than 15 percent of their compensation contributed to their ELCA retirement plan account with Portico (employee and employer contributions combined as of Aug 15, 2021) are eligible to apply. The churchwide organization has funding to match the contributions of 100 ELCA rostered ministers.
How to Qualify and Apply
The Qualification and Application period for the Readiness for Retirement Savings Matching program is open.
The first step to qualify and apply for the Readiness for Retirement program is to review the Savings Matching Programs Overview Booklet.
After you have read through the booklet, you can begin the online qualification and application process. To do so, complete the online Financial Wellness Assessment. If you qualify for the Readiness for Retirement program, you will be directed to the application as part of the assessment.
The due date to complete the process is September 23, 2021.