Hey all you legacy Honeywellers! Remember the old "85 Points" retirement plan? 55 years of age, and 30 years with the company = full retirement with medical. Remember, in 1999, when Bonsignore decided to cash out, and sold us out to the executioner(Allied Signal)? Well, I remember being coerced into opting for the new "Lump Sum" pension plan , as we were led to the believe all of us Honeywellers would get the axe shortly. In that time(20yrs), my "Lump Sum" has grown a big old 15k more. Anyone else have that pension plan? With the math, we get about 40% of what a legacy Garrett/Allied person will get. I was "85 Points" over 5 years ago. Boy, I sure miss those days. Who kept the "Old" Honeywell pension plan at that time? I'm curious to compare them. It's hard to find an old Honeyweller though.
12 replies (most recent on top)
- 2jxc: I retired in June 2017 at 61 years old on the Garrett/Signal pension annuity plan (not the lump sum). At that time, Honeywell transferred my earned pension funds to a lifetime annuity with The Northern Trust Company (a Fortune 500 Company) and that's who I receive my monthly payment and the year end 1099-R tax document from for the rest of my life. The payment is accurate to exactly what was shown on the company retirement website at that time.
Would not surprise me if Hon offers pension buyouts to those on annuity plan at some point in the future. They hate paying those monthly checks and can use the one time change game for earnings. I would guess pay about 12 years annuity for a lump sum.
Maybe you have a legal case and can claim you signed under duress because of upcoming layoffs.
Similar to the legacy Honeywell retirement plan (before the AlliedSignal takeover and the stealing of Honeywell's good name), there were legacy Signal and Bendix retirement plans in the Aero business, with the option to switch to a lump sum plan offered in about 2001. Legacy Bendix had the 85 point rule (I don't think you even had to be 55 to get full retirement if you reach 85 points, so full retirement at 52-53 was possible for those who started with the company right out of college) and Signal had a retire at 55 option with 80% of full benefit, growing 4% per year to age 60 and full benefit.
Comparing what a co-worker who opted to go with the lump-sum option got when retiring a couple of years ago to what I am currently getting in monthly payments under the old plan after retiring at about the same time, the old plan payout will surpass the lump-sum payout in less than 5 years. This is for similar salaries over 30+ year careers. The lump sum plan was really attractive for anyone who expected to leave the company shortly after taking that offer, but anyone who opted for the lump-sum option and stayed on with the company took a real beating on future value.
To be fair, when this decision was required, the information provided by the company was very clear in explaining that the lump sum benefit was not a good choice if you intended to work for the company for a significant period after deciding on the lump sum.
I went with the old plan and am good with it. Most coworkers I knew then did not opt for the lump sum option which are typically not good deals.
I was not “coerced” and read all the info carefully. Did not opt for the lump sum plan and am happy with the growth seen in my account these past 20 years.
I kept the old plan and glad I did.
10PnkBZJ-1kxs - You must work in Human Resources or be one of the new members of the management team? You're remarks are beyond ignorant and show why this company has digressed to its current state.
- pzc
I feel your pain. Summer of '18 was very poor time to have pension kick in, as Honeywell raised interest rate toward calculation, based on interest rate rise from the FED. The assumption is that you will make more $$ with "inflation and higher interest" and thus, the present value of the Lump Sum crashes. A quick research on the WEB will explain all. My wife hired in when Lump Sum was the ONLY pension and her value took a shellacking last year, too.
I kept the Old Plan, as I suspected that anything the company wanted me to do (New Plan) would undoubtedly not be in my best interest. The old plan allowed you to income average until Social Security kicked in, providing a large boost in early income, for a modest cut when SS started
Back when the company could be trusted, there was easy access to a retirement website that estimated the HON pension along with SS. It was easy to find and easy to understand. I checked in there in about 2012 and was pleased with what I found, but didn't care especially, since I had no intention of retiring at that time.
A few years ago, when ISC started running the Aerospace ship, I tried to look again, and it was nearly impossible. If there was a retirement calculator, I certainly couldn't find it – the only option was to try to deal with the dial-up mess. Anyway, in the summer of '18, when I ended up leaving, my monthly retirement was at least a thousand dollars less than it had been five or more years earlier. They didn't eliminate the old-school retirement plan (which was a rumor for awhile), but they definitely figured out a way to gut it, within the law, of course.
I'm not hurting, thanks to the 401(K), but there has definitely been jiggery-pokery going on regarding how the retirement benefit is calculated.
I sold over 40 years of my life to this place, and it's sad to see what it's become.
My lump sum goes up $6k per year, at $258 now, over 30 yrs, under 60 years old
I joined in 2014. Can someone explain how these old plans worked