Employees who once routinely deferred compensation are now rethinking those habits after tax reform under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. One concern is whether it may be better to take income today because of uncertainty about tax increases in the future. This article shows how you should consider tax changes and investment returns when analyzing whether to participate in your company's nonqualified deferred compensation (NQDC) plan.

When you run the numbers and consider when the taxes are taken out, most of the time the future value from the tax-deferred growth of your compensation, and investment earnings on it, will…

Putting aside your own personal financial situation, you want to ask the following questions…