Employer Retirement Benefits Pensions

We help simplify the complicated decisions surrounding your employee-sponsored plan and your payout options. We’ll offer a candid discussion of the benefits and risks associated with the various routes, helping you decide which option makes sense for you and helps protect your hard-earned savings from taxes and short-term market volatility. You’ll learn the optimal strategy for converting your retirement savings into retirement income so that you don’t outlive your resources. And, finally, we’ll help you consolidate your retirement savings and simplify your distributions. As you begin to weigh your distribution options, here are some points to consider.

In a Life Only or Single Life “Annuity” distribution plan option, you may receive 100% of the calculated monthly benefit. You’ll receive a fixed payment—a guaranteed monthly income for the rest of your life—from the company from which you retire. However, when you die, the benefit payments cease, meaning your surviving family members won’t receive anything.

Under the Joint and Survivor distribution plan option, you’ll receive a guaranteed monthly income from your company, and you can name a beneficiary, such as your spouse, who will continue to receive your benefits in the event of your death. In this instance, the monthly benefit payment will be a reduced amount, such as 75%, 63⅔, or 50% of the full fixed monthly amount.

Under the Guaranteed Years of Payment option, your monthly benefit payments are reduced, much like the Joint and Survivor option. Where this plan differs is that if you die within a previously established period of time, your beneficiary will continue to receive your monthly benefits until the end of that set period. Generally, this option is offered in 5, 10, 15, or 20 year increments.

The Level Income option is only available with Life Only (Single Life) and Period Certain distribution plan options and is applicable when you retire before you are eligible for Social Security. Under this option, your monthly benefit payments will be adjusted at retirement and when Social Security benefits begin to keep the level of your payments.

When you choose the Single Sum (Lump Sum) distribution option, you take a direct distribution via a direct transfer to an IRA or a direct or an indirect rollover. This option allows you to take the present value of what your monthly income payout would be in the form of a lump sum, rather than receiving your benefits on a monthly basis. Most people choose this option with hopes of increasing their lifetime income. If you do choose this option it’s important to remember that investment always involves a certain degree of risk.