I am a fan of the 3 legged stool approach to retirement, but unfortunately, my 3rd leg of pension(s) is pretty short.
I have two frozen pensions. One was frozen in 2000 when my company was acquired by a bigger company. That was a defined benefit pension. Since I only had about 6 years with the company back then - it's pretty darn small.
The bigger company had a "portable pension" - you could roll the lump sum out when you separated - or take it as monthly payments anytime after you separated.
That bigger company froze the pension in 2009 during the economic downturn.
Then the company split into 2 in 2011 - with the pension going to the other half of the company. Even the former frozen pension (from 2000) went with the other half - even though the vestiges of the acquired company stayed on our half. So both my pensions are held by the other company.
They just announced that they're moving the pension obligations to Prudential. They're supposed to be offering lump sums to former employees - which we already could get since we were separated.
The current lump sum buys about 64% of the pension that is offered. (I compared the monthly payout using immediateannuities.com and plugging in my lump sum value.)
Questions for those that have been through this.
Will they shrink the pension amount?
Will they shrink the lump sum amount?
Is there any way I can come out of this without losing something?
The corporation is supposedly going to save BILLIONS on this. So I figure I'm going to lose out somehow.
I have two frozen pensions. One was frozen in 2000 when my company was acquired by a bigger company. That was a defined benefit pension. Since I only had about 6 years with the company back then - it's pretty darn small.
The bigger company had a "portable pension" - you could roll the lump sum out when you separated - or take it as monthly payments anytime after you separated.
That bigger company froze the pension in 2009 during the economic downturn.
Then the company split into 2 in 2011 - with the pension going to the other half of the company. Even the former frozen pension (from 2000) went with the other half - even though the vestiges of the acquired company stayed on our half. So both my pensions are held by the other company.
They just announced that they're moving the pension obligations to Prudential. They're supposed to be offering lump sums to former employees - which we already could get since we were separated.
The current lump sum buys about 64% of the pension that is offered. (I compared the monthly payout using immediateannuities.com and plugging in my lump sum value.)
Questions for those that have been through this.
Will they shrink the pension amount?
Will they shrink the lump sum amount?
Is there any way I can come out of this without losing something?
The corporation is supposedly going to save BILLIONS on this. So I figure I'm going to lose out somehow.