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Re: How times have changed...

By: weco in FFFT | Recommend this post (0)
Sun, 26 Feb 12 3:30 AM | 56 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Food For Further Thought 		Msg. 39178 of 65535
(This msg. is a reply to 39175 by oldCADuser)
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Might be in how they are able to invest the lump themselves in order to get you the $140/m payments...

I could have taken a lump on my offer, but I opted for an annuity that added $330/m to my pension. Well, they had a problem finding an investment that could do that for the lump sum amount, I wouldn't let 'em off the hook, they kept going, 8 months later they finally got it together. Meantime, no pension or SS yet... But it worked out, I received back payments so it was all good, and by the time it was sorted out SS had also kicked in.. From everyone in my group that bailed, as far as I know I was the only one to hold their feet to the fire and get it locked in. Everyone else gave up, took the lump... I got to know our Benefits folks pretty well in those days.. I still think they had to add additional $'s to bring it to the right output level... They never offered that option again in any later offers... And as we see now, investment opportunities for decent rates are few and far between.. Of course I could have taken it all and bought AAPL, but we were looking for monthly gains, dividends...

Anyway, it was a fun project, glad to be out... If telecom had held up, and the LU stock hadn't crashed or if I'd moved earlier, I'd have another sizable lump, but hindsight is always better... As long as we're comfy, all is well...

Managing the millions of pension plans, payouts is pretty complex, Fidelity is who was handling it, but now I'm not sure... Just keep thise checks coming!

weco


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The above is a reply to the following message:
Re: How times have changed...
By: oldCADuser in FFFT
Sat, 25 Feb 12 11:05 PM 		Msg. 39175 of 65535

Weco,

The letter states that this is a one-time-only offer and that I have to have all the paperwork back to them by April 1st. And besides, since I have no choice but to start to accept the regular pension payments on September 1st, that once you start with one option there will be no way to change it to something else. So I don't really have any choice, either opt out now for the $21,000 lump-sum or wait until September and start the originally promised payment of $140.63/month.

The letter also indicated that this is the first time they have ever offered a lump-sum payout (except that back in 1980, when I quit my job, I was told that if the value of my pension had been less than $5,000 I would have been forced to take it in cash) and that there would be no assurance that they would be doing so again. I suspect that there's some corporate tax issue which is about to expire or change soon and they are simply trying to take maximum advantage of it. Based on what I agreed to 32 years ago, I don't see how anything has changed with respect to what was promised to me, so if there has been a change somewhere it's something that was only going to have an effect on the company and not it's retirees or former employees.

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