Community Chat

[CrazyDaisy]

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@Lipstickdiva wrote:

Our firm once handled an estate where the decedent worked for a company and at the time of his passing, he was getting a pension from the company.  While we were administering the estate, the monthly pension checks stopped and eventually the executor got a letter that the pension fund went belly-up and there would be no more checks.

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Would think the pension checks would have stop upon the persons death.

[chrystaltree]

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@CrazyDaisy wrote:

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@Lipstickdiva wrote:

Our firm once handled an estate where the decedent worked for a company and at the time of his passing, he was getting a pension from the company.  While we were administering the estate, the monthly pension checks stopped and eventually the executor got a letter that the pension fund went belly-up and there would be no more checks.

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Would think the pension checks would have stop upon the persons death.

Not necessarily.  Some employee retirement accounts provide for the surviving spouse.  Our's works like that.  The surviving spouse would receive half of what the employee was receiving until his or her death.  

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[CelticCrafter]

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@chrystaltree wrote:

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@CrazyDaisy wrote:

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@Lipstickdiva wrote:

Our firm once handled an estate where the decedent worked for a company and at the time of his passing, he was getting a pension from the company.  While we were administering the estate, the monthly pension checks stopped and eventually the executor got a letter that the pension fund went belly-up and there would be no more checks.

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Would think the pension checks would have stop upon the persons death.

Not necessarily.  Some employee retirement accounts provide for the surviving spouse.  Our's works like that.  The surviving spouse would receive half of what the employee was receiving until his or her death.  

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My husbands pension is guaranteed for his lifetime (hopefully) but if he should pass before collecting 60 payments, the remaining payments would go to a named beneficiary and I would still collect what he set up for me for the rest of my lifetime.

[CrazyDaisy]

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@chrystaltree wrote:

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@CrazyDaisy wrote:

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@Lipstickdiva wrote:

Our firm once handled an estate where the decedent worked for a company and at the time of his passing, he was getting a pension from the company.  While we were administering the estate, the monthly pension checks stopped and eventually the executor got a letter that the pension fund went belly-up and there would be no more checks.

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Would think the pension checks would have stop upon the persons death.

Not necessarily.  Some employee retirement accounts provide for the surviving spouse.  Our's works like that.  The surviving spouse would receive half of what the employee was receiving until his or her death.  

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Poster did not mention any survivor benefits, just a pension check.

[patbz]

I am a Federal Civil Service retiree.  I receive a blended pension (CSRS/FERS) as well as Social Security earned from my work, not DH (point is, no "spouse benefit").  Additionally, we contributed as much as we could go 401k.  Like Kachina, we have Federal insurance and since we were eligible for Medicare, no out of pocket expenses(we did have one huge medical bill prior to being on Medicare -- $450k "out of network"; finally settled with 10k co pay).  So far so good with our resources.

[Trinity11]

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@FrostyBabe1 wrote:

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@ccassaday wrote:

Oh and i wasnt talking not losing any money. Stocks go up and down. But you wont lose a entire portfolio if you are divrrsified and ride it over the long run. 

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Please stop giving out investment advice to people that you don't know that is based only on your narrow frame of reference. Everyone's situation is different. Unless you are registered with the SEC as an advisor, what you are doing (telling people to buy mutual funds, open IRA's, etc) is illegal. That's why I specifically suggested that the OP talk to a professional. Although I acutally worked at the management level in institutional investing, I'm no longer doing so and therefore can not legally provide ANY type of advice other than the most general types of things that anyone else could find for themselves. I would never, ever, ever tell someone what type of investment vehicles they should use. 

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Like you I advised up thread to hire a professional. Taking advice from here for such an important matter could prove disastrous. 

[meem120]

This happenned to my mom.  My dad set up his pension so that when he retired he would receive less money, but when he died, my mother would receive more money monthly to supplement her SS which was very little, as she really didnt work that much.   Several years after his death, she received a letter from his union that the pension find was broke.  That was it.  No more money.  It was a terrible blow to her and she was a nervous wreck.  Her security was gone.  Of course, we supplemented her income after that, but it really affected her physical and mental health.  

[Happiness Is Inside JOB]

Everyone

Thank you so much I learned a wealth of information!!!!

[esmeraldagooch]

There is a story on Zero hedge today about pension funds. I can't link it and and story is up today if you want to read it.  Here is the part I found intersting.

Bloomberg reported last summer that the biggest corporations in the United States collectively have a $382 billion pension shortfall.

Not to worry, though. The federal government long ago set up an agency called the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation to bail out insolvent pension funds.

(It’s sort of like an FDIC for pension funds.)

Problem is– the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation is itself insolvent and in need of a bailout.

According to the PBGC’s own financial statements, they have a “net financial position” of MINUS $75 billion, and they lost $1.3 billion last year alone.

The federal government isn’t really in a position to help; according to the Treasury Department’s financial statements, Social Security and Medicare have a combined shortfall exceeding $40 TRILLION.

And public pension funds across the 50 states have an estimated combined shortfall of $1.4 TRILLION, according to a 2016 report by the Pew Charitable Trusts

[seaBreeze]

Wow, my head is spinning from all of this information. 

Simply put, pensions are protected by E.R.I.S.A. (except for most govt & church employees).