The Library
Pension buyout guides
The definitive, plain-English reference on pension buyout offers, from the first definition to the tax paperwork. Every figure is sourced to government data, regulator filings, or established industry research.
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What Is a Pension Buyout? Definition, Types, and How They Work
A pension buyout is an offer to exchange future monthly pension checks for a one-time lump sum, or a deal that moves your pension to an insurance company. Here is exactly how both kinds work.
Read the guide →The Basics
What a pension buyout is and how the numbers are set.
How Pension Lump Sums Are Calculated (417(e) Segment Rates)
The exact mechanics behind your lump sum offer: IRS minimum present value segment rates, mortality tables, lookback months, and why higher rates mean smaller checks.
8 min read
How Much Is My Pension Worth? How to Value a Lifetime Benefit
How to calculate what your pension is actually worth: the present value of your monthly benefit, why it is often larger than a lump sum offer, and how to compare the two.
7 min read
Pension Risk Transfer: What It Means When an Insurer Takes Over Your Pension
What a pension risk transfer means for retirees: why employers hand pensions to insurance companies, what changes for your check, and what happens to PBGC protection.
8 min read
Making the Decision
The framework, the questions, and the deadlines.
Lump Sum vs. Monthly Pension: How to Decide
A plain-English decision framework for pension buyout offers: when the lump sum wins, when the monthly check wins, and the math that settles it.
10 min read
Pension Buyouts for Married Couples: The Survivor Decision
How married couples should weigh a pension buyout: joint-and-survivor annuities, spousal consent, and how a lump sum changes what happens to the income when one spouse dies.
8 min read
9 Pension Buyout Mistakes That Cost Retirees the Most
The most expensive mistakes people make with a pension buyout offer, from taking a taxable check to ignoring the survivor benefit, and how to avoid each one.
8 min read
12 Questions to Ask Before Accepting a Pension Buyout
The exact questions to put to your plan administrator, your spouse, and yourself before signing a lump sum election, and the answers that should raise a flag.
7 min read
Pension Buyout Windows and Deadlines: How They Work
Why pension buyout offers come with short windows, what the typical timeline looks like, what happens if you miss the deadline, and whether offers come back.
6 min read
Taxes & Rollovers
Keep the IRS out of your lump sum.
Pension Buyout Tax Rules: Rollovers, Withholding, and Penalties
How lump sum pension buyouts are taxed: the direct rollover that avoids the 20 percent withholding, the 60-day trap, early withdrawal penalties, and what stays tax-deferred.
7 min read
Pension Taxes by State: Where Your Retirement Income Is Taxed
How pension and retirement income is taxed by state: the nine states with no income tax, the states that fully exempt pensions, and how state taxes affect a lump sum buyout decision.
7 min read
How to Roll a Pension Lump Sum Into an IRA, Step by Step
The exact steps to move a pension buyout into an IRA with zero tax withheld: opening the account, the election form, the check, and the January 1099-R.
6 min read
Pension Safety
Who guarantees your check, before and after a transfer.
Is My Pension Safe? PBGC and State Guaranty Protection Explained
Who stands behind your pension check: what the PBGC insures, what it does not, and what protects you after a pension moves to an insurance company.
7 min read
What Happens to My Pension If My Company Goes Bankrupt?
If your employer goes bankrupt, the PBGC generally steps in and keeps paying your pension up to legal limits. What is protected, what is capped, and how a buyout offer fits in.
6 min read
Data & Statistics
The sourced numbers behind the buyout wave.
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