A Pasco County or Temple Terrace public employee who searches deferred compensation programs in Tampa is usually looking at Florida’s governmental 457. It is a workplace savings account that runs next to the paycheck while the person is still on the job. It is not an FRS pension, and it is not the leftover 401(k) from a private employer.
What the Florida 457 deferred compensation plan is
Florida’s governmental 457 is deferred compensation in the literal sense. A slice of pay is set aside in a plan account before that money shows up as federal wages for the year. Because Florida has no state individual income tax, the federal bracket is the tax conversation that actually moves. There is no state layer stacked on top of it.
Public employers offer this. A Pasco agency. A city department. A Temple Terrace shop on the USF border where the planning question is already an FRS election and, often, a 403(b). The account belongs to that employer’s governmental 457, not to a brokerage window the employee opened on a Saturday.
The IRS treats governmental 457 plans as one of the workplace plans that share a 2026 elective-deferral ceiling. For 2026, the annual contribution limit for employees who participate in 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 plans, and the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan is increased to $24,500. That figure is a 2026 figure. The IRS published it in the 2026 contribution-limit announcement. The plan administrator applies it to a given paycheck. This brand does not.
Catch-up money is a separate door, and the IRS names it by age. For 2026, the catch-up contribution limit that generally applies for employees aged 50 and over who participate in most 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 plans, and the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan is increased to $8,000. Under a change made in SECURE 2.0, a higher catch-up contribution limit applies for employees aged 60, 61, 62 and 63 who participate in these plans. For 2026, this higher catch-up contribution limit remains $11,250.
Those are the 2026 numbers the IRS set. How they interact when a household already has a 403(b) or an FRS Investment Plan contribution in the same year is a plan-document question. The 403(b) versus 457(b) comparison for Pasco public employees owns that pairing. This page stays on what the 457 is while the person is still working.
A governmental 457 and a nongovernmental 457 share a nickname and almost nothing else when money later comes out. A state, county, or city sponsors the governmental version. Some tax-exempt private employers sponsor the other. Distribution rules and rollover paths are not the same. The Summary Plan Description names which kind an account is. The phrase on a benefits flyer is not enough.
| Governmental 457 | Nongovernmental 457 | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sponsors it | A state, county, city, or other public employer | Some tax-exempt private employers |
| What the nickname means | Deferred pay while the person is still on the job | The same nickname, a different rulebook |
| Distribution and rollover | Follows the governmental 457 path in the plan document and IRS rules | Follows a different distribution and rollover path |
| What names the plan | The Summary Plan Description for that employer | The Summary Plan Description for that employer |
A USF-adjacent staffer in Temple Terrace who opened the 457 the year they were hired and has not looked at the lineup since is a common scene. The account is still doing its job as a deferral. Whether the lineup, the beneficiary form, and the federal-bracket picture still fit is the conversation an independent licensed planner walks through. Financial planning in Temple Terrace is how households in that pocket start that conversation. Wesley Chapel Wealth Pro matches people with those planners. It does not manage the account.
How a 457 sits next to a 401k, a 403b, or FRS
A 457 is extra savings capacity next to the benefit the job already promised. It is not the FRS Pension Plan. It is not the FRS Investment Plan. Those two FRS tracks are a different election, and the FRS Investment Plan versus Pension Plan post owns that fork.
Temple Terrace is the outlier in this corridor for a reason. The live question is often an FRS pension election or a 403(b) that has to be coordinated with a defined benefit, not a brokerage account. The 457 then sits as a third bucket. Same paycheck. Three rulebooks.
A 401(k) is the private-sector cousin most households already know. Contribution language for 2026 groups 401(k), 403(b), and governmental 457 together on the elective-deferral ceiling. The plans still live under different employers and different distribution rules. A Wesley Chapel household that left a private 401(k) behind and later took a Pasco public job now has both. That is two administrators and two sets of when-you-can-touch-it rules, not one pile of retirement money.
A 403(b) shows up in schools, universities, and some hospitals. On the USF border it is a live account, not a trivia fact. Pairing it with a 457 is common in public employment. This page does not restage that comparison. The useful fact here is simpler. The 457 does not replace the 403(b). Each plan’s document says what a contribution does inside that plan.
FRS Pension Plan money is a monthly benefit formula. A 457 is an account balance. Those two things fund retirement in different ways. A pension’s fixed monthly income changes what risk the rest of the portfolio needs to carry. That is why a Temple Terrace household with a strong FRS pension and a 457 invested as if the pension did not exist can end up with more market exposure than the paycheck story implied. The advisors we match you with will walk through that picture. They do not pick funds by name on this site.
FRS Investment Plan money is already in market accounts. Adding a 457 on top means two account-style plans plus, for some people, a leftover 403(b). Retirement income planning is the later conversation about which bucket to draw, and when. While the person is still working, the job is knowing which bucket is which.
Land O’ Lakes and Lutz households in longer-tenured public jobs often hit this at the accumulation-to-decumulation handoff. East Pasco is already on the other side of that handoff. In Zephyrhills, Dade City, San Antonio, and Shady Hills the 457 is one more account that will eventually face required minimum distributions. The IRS says you generally have to start taking withdrawals from an IRA, SIMPLE IRA, SEP IRA, or retirement plan account when you reach age 73. That clock is the IRS required minimum distribution rule, not a plan slogan.
Federal-bracket timing matters more here than it does for a household that moved from a state that taxes wages on top of the IRS. A larger deferral in one year can drop taxable wages in that year. A smaller one leaves more of the paycheck in the current federal return. Which way a household leans is a conversation with an advisor and, where the tax return is the hinge, with the household’s own CPA. This brand does not file that return and does not tell anyone what to put in the 457.
What happens to the money when you leave the job
Leaving the job is a different chapter from using the 457 while employed. The money does not vanish. It stays in the plan until the participant takes a distribution, moves it, or leaves it where it sits. Which of those paths is even open depends on whether the 457 is governmental or nongovernmental, and on the plan document.
This page does not walk the exit paperwork. That fork is already written as what happens to deferred compensation after you leave a Florida job. A 401(k) rollover conversation with a licensed planner is the same family of work when old employer plans are sitting in more than one place.
A few federal mechanics still belong here because they start the day a check is payable to the person. The IRS says you have 60 days from the date you receive an IRA or retirement plan distribution to roll it over to another plan or IRA. A retirement plan distribution paid to you is subject to mandatory withholding of 20%, even if you intend to roll it over later. Both sentences are from the IRS page on rollovers of retirement plan and IRA distributions. A direct plan-to-plan or plan-to-IRA transfer is a different path from a check in the mail. The administrator names which path a form is.
Most retirement plan distributions are subject to income tax and may be subject to an additional 10% tax. The IRS publishes exceptions, including a separation-from-service exception that applies to qualified plans such as a 401(k) and not to IRAs, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA plans. Rolling plan money into an IRA drops that exception. Whether any exception applies to a particular 457 distribution is a plan-type and IRS question. It is not a sentence this page can answer for a specific reader.
Governmental 457 money and nongovernmental 457 money do not travel the same roads after a job ends. Mixing them in one sentence is how a household fills out the wrong form. The plan’s own documents, and the advisors we match you with, sort which account is which before anyone signs a distribution request.
A Hunter’s Green household five years out from a claiming decision, with a leftover private 401(k), a Pasco 457, and an FRS record, is not looking at one move. It is looking at a map. A beneficiary designation on each account outranks what a will says about the same money. That is true while the person is working. It is still true the day they leave.
What is the Florida deferred compensation plan?
It is the governmental 457 that public employers in this state use so employees can defer part of a paycheck into a retirement account. In Temple Terrace and Pasco County it usually sits next to FRS, and sometimes next to a 403(b), while the person is still employed.
Is every deferred compensation program in Tampa a 457?
No. Private employers use other plan types, and some tax-exempt employers offer a nongovernmental 457 that follows different distribution and rollover rules. The Summary Plan Description is what names the plan. The nickname on a benefits flyer is not enough.
Who checks an advisor before a household shares the 457 statement?
The advisor’s own record is public. A household can look it up on FINRA BrokerCheck, on the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site, and on CFP Board’s verification page if the person uses that mark. Ask in writing whether they act as a fiduciary for the whole relationship. The word has a specific regulatory meaning.
When to call us
A 457 that is still filling from a Pasco or Temple Terrace paycheck is worth taking to a fiduciary advisor when it has to be coordinated with FRS, a 403(b), or an old 401(k), or when a job exit is on the calendar. That is a map of accounts and tax timing, not a form to fill in isolation. Call us at (813) 680-3195.