Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Having retired twice myself, and watching my wife go through her Retirement process now, there is one common denominator that can drive ardent planners nuts.
Your employer, or Pension Provider, or the employer's designated Off-Boarding Consultant, will not process your Retirement Request until 2-weeks before your identified effective date. This can result in great angst if you are a compulsive planner and are not aware of this quirk. It doesn't matter how early you submit your request or how many times you attempt to contact your Specialist, the process is rigid and fixed for a reason, and your request will not be performed early!
What you need to do is realize this, and relax.
Gather all required and potentially required documents early, then keep them handy so you can instantly supply them to your Employer or Pension Provider when requested.
Documents such as:
Birth Certificates for you and spouse
Marriage License(s)
Divorce Decree(s)
QDRO document(s)
Death Certificate of deceased spouse
SSN of current spouse
SSN of former spouse if not re-married
I suggest contacting the SSA 4-5 months early as they will accept your request in advance of actual date. They will require info from some of the above documents with your initial request.
I didn't need our Marriage License for my retirements as I took a Lump Sum from my first employer and the second employer provided no pension. My wife did need our Marriage License for her retirement processing. Each case is different, so start the document search early, and the above list is likely not all-inclusive.
FWIW: Something else for new retires wanting to stagger retirement dates.
If the spouse that remains working has a health plan that covers both, the first one retiring (if beyond 65 and eligible for Medicare-B), can delay taking Med-B until the remaining spouse retires. IMPORTANT, though, have the HR of the remaining employee fill out and sign the CMS-L564E form before they leave employment and their healthcare plan. That will eliminate any penalties for the delay in sign-up for the first retiree, and can save them some money!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,632 posts, read 81,333,263 times
Reputation: 57877
Your experience with the employer is not always the case. I have one of my people retiring as of October 1st, and is using accumulated PTO from July 1st until then in order to extend her medical. HR has told me that I need to collect her laptop, ID card and parking pass on July 1st since all of her paperwork for separation and pension is completed and signed.
I retired from government and the process was actually pleasant. It was a 2 separate process, one was to inform my local HR and they processed me no different than if I was leaving the agency for another employment. The other was to contact the agency central HR where they processed my retirement benefits.
Some of us have funded our own retirement. I have. That means I simply gave notice at work and worked up until my last day.
I has meant a huge savings for us, since I don't have to take a minimum distribution of any sort.
I was very impressed with our local Social Security office. They were way beyond helpful and efficient. I had the check routed to our money market account. In fact, all our incomes are routed to the money market account, and on the first of every month we draw out what we will need for that month.
What’s a pension? What’s an off-boarding consultant? Most of corporate America gets a COBRA health care letter required by law and that’s it. It’s not like the web portal to my 401(k) changes. At the moment, only 31% of Americans retiring have a pension. In the private sector, that’s going to drop to close to zero in another decade or two.
Having retired twice myself, and watching my wife go through her Retirement process now, there is one common denominator that can drive ardent planners nuts.
Your employer, or Pension Provider, or the employer's designated Off-Boarding Consultant, will not process your Retirement Request until 2-weeks before your identified effective date. This can result in great angst if you are a compulsive planner and are not aware of this quirk. It doesn't matter how early you submit your request or how many times you attempt to contact your Specialist, the process is rigid and fixed for a reason, and your request will not be performed early!
What you need to do is realize this, and relax.
Gather all required and potentially required documents early, then keep them handy so you can instantly supply them to your Employer or Pension Provider when requested.
Documents such as:
Birth Certificates for you and spouse
Marriage License(s)
Divorce Decree(s)
QDRO document(s)
Death Certificate of deceased spouse
SSN of current spouse
SSN of former spouse if not re-married
I suggest contacting the SSA 4-5 months early as they will accept your request in advance of actual date. They will require info from some of the above documents with your initial request.
I didn't need our Marriage License for my retirements as I took a Lump Sum from my first employer and the second employer provided no pension. My wife did need our Marriage License for her retirement processing. Each case is different, so start the document search early, and the above list is likely not all-inclusive.
This was a very helpful post. I want to add if you are going to receive a pension through a QDRO. The pension date is not when you turn 65 but when your ex-spouse turned 65.
Another thing to get taken care of is the post retirement payments such as unused vacation time. Depending upon when in the year you retire, it may not be a problem, but if you intend to work parttime before you're FRA, it could cost you a few thousand dollars.
Your experience with the employer is not always the case. I have one of my people retiring as of October 1st, and is using accumulated PTO from July 1st until then in order to extend her medical. HR has told me that I need to collect her laptop, ID card and parking pass on July 1st since all of her paperwork for separation and pension is completed and signed.
I think that was the case for my first retirement also. I announced in early November of 2012 that I was retiring effective April 1, 2013 and that my final day of work would be February 14, 2013 as I was using 6 weeks of Vacation credit.
My retirement papers were processed during the first two weeks of February.
So the general comment is still valid, but using PTO or Vacation time will shift it.
my paperwork was done ahead of time by HR (not sure how early, maybe a month to give me time to review for accuracy?) but nothing was processed/sent to OPM until I was out the door.
being single I did not have to scrounge any of those documents and not even a birth certificate.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
