The PRAP, optimized
around your contract.
United's Pilot Retirement Account Plan (PRAP) is built around a large direct company contribution. The opportunity — and the planning — is in how that interacts with the IRS limits and your Roth strategy. Here's how I think about it with the United pilots I work with.
The PRAP levers most pilots miss.
Plan to the 415(c) total-additions limit
The limit that actually constrains a high direct-contribution plan is the total annual additions ceiling — not the elective-deferral number most pilots watch. We plan to the right one.
In-plan Roth conversion of after-tax dollars
Where the plan permits after-tax contributions and in-plan conversions, the mega-backdoor space is large. We confirm what your current plan documents allow and schedule conversions deliberately.
Bracket-aware Roth vs. pre-tax mix
At First Officer pay the Roth side often wins; at senior wide-body Captain pay pre-tax usually does. We model the crossover with your real numbers and revisit it annually.
Coordinating premium and override pay
Variable income makes a static contribution election a blunt instrument. We map deferrals to your actual pay pattern so you neither over- nor under-shoot the limits.
Retirement income sequencing
The mandatory-age deadline is a hard date. We build the drawdown order — taxable, pre-tax, Roth — well before you need it, not in the last 90 days.
A First Officer and a Captain
are both "United pilots" — with very different brackets, time horizons, and decisions. The plan should reflect that. Mine does.