Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

Pension reductions

Legacy SBC here, non-bargained pension plan. Just checked Fidelity estimator with the new pension calculations - my lump sum in a few years when I hit modified rule of 75 dropped by $86,500 based on the new calculations from what it was projecting just yesterday. Thanks, Randall and Stank for your wonderful leadership! Much appreciate being screwed out of that money due to your failures. You can bet I'll keep putting extra effort into my job! ATT's idea of loyalty: 20 years of service = take away 5 days of vacation and a b–chunk of change in retirement.

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Post ID: @OP+19uw0zLg

20 replies (most recent on top)

A question just came out. ATT has legacy T, legacy SBC, etc. I know we all use Fidelity tool with the same segment rate to calculate the forecasted lump sum amount. But does anyone know whether legacy T and legacy SBC use the same formula to calculate lump sum? I was told that it is different and would like some one to confirm it. Thanks.

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Post ID: @3agfn+19uw0zLg

glad I left and took the last pension buyout. money is so much more than what I would of had if I stayed and took the pension through att. I would not be one bit surprised if they just did away with the whole pension and find a way to get out of it though the government.

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Post ID: @6qyg+19uw0zLg

Please don’t leave this year ONLY because you want to retain the healthcare subsidy. AT&T isn’t guaranteeing the benefit, and you simply can not trust that they won’t stop providing it. In fact, I think they’ may keep it for a year, then in 2023, they’ll stop paying it altogether. I know it really s—s, but if retiring puts you in any disadvantage financially, it’s not worth it to jump ship to retain an empty promise.

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Post ID: @5agi+19uw0zLg

Has anyone tried to model their pension payout scenarios today to see if they changed and only to got a message: yours is not currently available online? Does anyone know why that occurs?

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Post ID: @4wyn+19uw0zLg

The segment rates went up in January and bond yields are rising so expect to see the segment rates creep a little higher for February as well. If that trend continues lump sum amounts could be significantly lower for 2022. Just something else to chew on for anyone on the fence about retiring

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Post ID: @3tpw+19uw0zLg

You are not going to see much difference when pension modeling a year out....I estimated last week and then today and a big difference, Check out an estimate for 5 yrs out or 10 yrs out you will see a whopping change in lump sum as well as well as a bothersome cut in the monthly annuity.

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Post ID: @1hpq+19uw0zLg

No change on mine compared to what I saw couple weeks ago.

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Post ID: @1ovj+19uw0zLg

If your business plan stinks and you cant attract new talent blame everyone around you and push them out the door. This is what we get from the smartest man in the room? OMG with leadership like this it seems that AT&T is going the way of AOL, Hostess, Enron and Eastern airlines. Hold on to your wallets boys and girls....

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Post ID: @qtz+19uw0zLg

Stink said “not sustainable” because why??? Poor executive leadership and a big pile of debt that we had no say in accumulating

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Post ID: @tei+19uw0zLg

The company has adjusted the percentage being funded into your pension account. If you are close to retirement (year or two away) there won’t be much impact but if you are ten to fifteen years away from retirement then those years of being funded at lower rate compounded over time increase the percentage you will lose. I ran the numbers on few dates, one being day I hit my modified 75 at age 50 then I looked at age 55 and age 62. I’m around 40 years old so the initial difference at age 50 was about 20% but by age 62 it’s almost 30% less than what my estimated lump sum amounts were a month ago. This equates to losing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lump sum pension. So now imagine if the company stops funding the pension accounts all together in a few years, you could see a 40-50% reduction in your lump sum 15-20 years out. It will be difficult to make up that money through your 401k this late in the game.

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Post ID: @hcb+19uw0zLg

I ran 2 diff scenarios I do not see any reduction. Hope I did this right. I did get the letter regarding the pension calculation change effective 1/1/2022. Am I missing something?

Scenario 1 stop working 12/31/2021, collect at age 65
Scenario 2 stop working 1/31/2022, collect at age 65

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Post ID: @wns+19uw0zLg

I’m about 12 years from my target retirement age and few years away from mod75 looked on Fidelity couple weeks ago and then again today. My lump sum went down 22%. At this point I’m just planning to adjust what I invest in my IRA to try to bridge the gap but it won’t be easy. Managers that are pension eligible and in 40’s are getting hit hard with these pension adjustments but glad to still have something at this point. Still hurts though,

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Post ID: @kpv+19uw0zLg

I think the company may have directly shed $3billion in pension liabilities and another $3B through forcing early departures. The total unfounded liability in the pension plan is around $9B. Expect to see the pension closed and sold to Athene or the like in 3-5 years.

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Post ID: @zhb+19uw0zLg

For the Classic S (and I believe this pertains to the Ameritech and SNET pensions also). The reductions are being muted as their is an inverse relationship with the lump sum and interest rates. The lower the interest rates, the higher the lump sum. We’re currently in a very low interest rate environment. Once rates move up to a more typical level your lump sum amount will decrease significantly.
Rates are taken from the previous year’s November values:
2021 rates: .53, 2.31, 3.09
2020 rates: 2.04, 3.09, 3.68
2019 rates: 3.43, 4.46, 4.88

Plug some of those numbers into your estimates to see the effects on your lump sum.

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Post ID: @fwd+19uw0zLg

I am classic BellSouth and doesn't look like mine changed any. I think our contributions had been lower to pension all along. I will definitely be leaving EOY, if not sooner. Can't wait to see what the Buffoon in Chief has to say today about screwing us out of our benefits. I am ready to retire so not a huge deal but I am sad for those 20+ year folks that still need a few more years and will not get what they were promised. I have heard that some orgs are already trying to figure out what to do after year-end due to the amount of folks leaving. I have already drawn a line that if I am offered contract work back to AT&T it will be for 125% of what I am making now (to cover the benefits, HSA money, vacation) that was taken away from us.

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Post ID: @lzh+19uw0zLg

Thanks original poster and everyone, appreciate the sharing.

  • qae+19uw0zLg
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Post ID: @kea+19uw0zLg

Mine is down around 10% at retirement age. I thought it might be worse since they are cutting new founding by 30%.

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Post ID: @gbs+19uw0zLg

Original poster here - @qae+19uw0zLg, I had no clue what to expect like you, and like you, I did expect the worst, so I will admit I was initially relieved that it wasn't more - then I realized how sh–ty it is that this company has conditioned us to expect the worst, so that taking away almost $100k in deferred compensation that we've been working towards for many years causes relief, and that made me angry.

There is a common misconception that a pension should be looked at as an added bonus that most people don't have, and we should just be happy to have it, and while it's true that it's rare these days, people forget that it's DEFERRED COMPENSATION, meaning we could have been earning a higher salary all these years with other employers. It's not "free money".

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Post ID: @tmi+19uw0zLg

Also legacy SBC, i just did mine and although it is smaller, it is no where near the drop i expected. My MOD-75 total went down 70 grand but as a % it was smaller than then 50% I expected.

Original poster, was $86k what you expected or did you have any idea prior? I just had no idea how much mine would change so i expected worse.

There is some meat left on the bone, they can circle back and screw me out of the rest of it next year.

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Post ID: @qae+19uw0zLg

Yep, Ran mine this morning, significant hit to my lump sum and also to my monthly amounts if I go that route, so they too away my Health benefits , reduced my death benefit to 15k and now a big hit in my pension calculation, I definitely will be leaving 12/31/2021, will find a 40 hour a week job because I will have Benefits leaving this year, but it is all good, the company is doing this so all us oldtimers leave, but I will take my detailed knowledge of the network with me :)

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Post ID: @mby+19uw0zLg

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