Any State Farm employees/retirees here?

[supersharpie]

My wife is a SF employee and is only 31. However, we are doing some long range planning and have the following questions: does SF give early retirees the option of deferring their pension until they reach 62 in order to avoid the penalty? If my wife retires prior to turning 55, then what? Will she be forced to start taking it at 55? Is the maximum penalty for taking the pension at 55 still 40%?

Thanks!

 

[rodi]

I'm no help. I worked part time in a SF agents office for 6 months during college... No retiree benefits accrued.

I know how my megacorp (not State Farm) pension works... I *can* start taking it at 55, or any point after that. It grows in value till my SS full retirement age (in my case 67)... I can defer after that but it stops growing, so why would I.... I think that's pretty typical for non-government pensions.

 

[rbmrtn]

You are probably in the best position to answer. Check the plans documents ( SPD or Summary Plan Description ). It should have all this information. Also a current retiree may be under different plan/rules than what a future retiree may have.

I left megacorp before ER age of 55 and took a big cut on pension payout, but by delaying I can earn most of it back.

 

[MBAustin]

She should be able to get this info from HR. Most Megacorps now have HR "service centers" (aka call centers) so she should have little concern that her question will get back to her direct management.

 

[athena53]

I agree that you need to check on the specific plan. Sometimes they even change it along the way, so that people who retired 10 years ago got different deals.


I have a couple of small pensions. One, from GE, started at age 60, no extra payout if I delayed it. Another, from the Prudential, is $750/month if I start at age 62 (early next year) or $1,000 if I start at 65. I'm waiting to 65.