To the unfortunate folks:

Anonymous · 2023-06-23T19:52:10Z

These are the things that I didnt know: Read your separation papers closely. You will be glad you did. There will be information in there that you can point to when you dont get the benefits that you are entitled to. Contact VIA benefits and be be prepared to be very very frustrated. The analysts that you talk to will give you contradicting information, but you have to keep after them. Talk to 3, 4, 5 of them to make sure that you are in the right plan for you and how it will be paid for. Your severance will come anywhere from 4-6 weeks after your last day and after you have signed the "I wont sue letter". This means that you will pay taxes on that amount this year. If you still do not have a job after the new year, you will be eligible for a HUGE discount in healthcare premiums next year. (VIA wont automatically tell you this). Mine went from $385 a month to $79 a month because I lived on my severance into the next year and didnt have any income. Some people say buy COBRA, but that didnt work out for me as well as the discount. You have to do your math on this one. You will have access to Right Associates for counseling and outplacement services. Save your time and forget about them. They will tell you all the nice things like you are a good person and it wasnt your fault and its always sunny after the storm clears blah blah blah. I didnt want to hear that Dr Phil cr-pola. Dont rely on the HR outsourced services for any significant help. I think it was called Alight (or something like that). They are an outsourced mirror image of HR, in other words, no help at all. Dont crawl inside a bottle. I did that and it didnt work. Get all of your medical and dental needs taken care of before your 6 month Ford insurance runs out. After the shock wears off, you will start to feel like a load has been taken off your shoulders. It took me about 2 months, but that gnawing feeling eventually went away. I generated an A-plan pin for myself before I left. Why? I just wanted to make sure that 1 was available, just in case. I never used it. Lastly, Pay attention to your expenses! I saw several people who went through their lump-sum in a hurry and their moto was "its no big deal, I'll find another job". Some did. Some didnt. This is a time for a level head, not a loose canon.

These are the things that I didnt know:

Read your separation papers closely. You will be glad you did. There will be information in there that you can point to when you dont get the benefits that you are entitled to.
Contact VIA benefits and be be prepared to be very very frustrated. The analysts that you talk to will give you contradicting information, but you have to keep after them. Talk to 3, 4, 5 of them to make sure that you are in the right plan for you and how it will be paid for.
Your severance will come anywhere from 4-6 weeks after your last day and after you have signed the "I wont sue letter". This means that you will pay taxes on that amount this year. If you still do not have a job after the new year, you will be eligible for a HUGE discount in healthcare premiums next year. (VIA wont automatically tell you this). Mine went from $385 a month to $79 a month because I lived on my severance into the next year and didnt have any income. Some people say buy COBRA, but that didnt work out for me as well as the discount. You have to do your math on this one.
You will have access to Right Associates for counseling and outplacement services. Save your time and forget about them. They will tell you all the nice things like you are a good person and it wasnt your fault and its always sunny after the storm clears blah blah blah. I didnt want to hear that Dr Phil cr-pola.
Dont rely on the HR outsourced services for any significant help. I think it was called Alight (or something like that). They are an outsourced mirror image of HR, in other words, no help at all.
Dont crawl inside a bottle. I did that and it didnt work.
Get all of your medical and dental needs taken care of before your 6 month Ford insurance runs out.
After the shock wears off, you will start to feel like a load has been taken off your shoulders. It took me about 2 months, but that gnawing feeling eventually went away.
I generated an A-plan pin for myself before I left. Why? I just wanted to make sure that 1 was available, just in case. I never used it.
Lastly, Pay attention to your expenses! I saw several people who went through their lump-sum in a hurry and their moto was "its no big deal, I'll find another job". Some did. Some didnt. This is a time for a level head, not a loose canon.

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I use both Vanguard and Fidelity. My HSA is with Fidelity while the rest is with Vanguard.

2ueu+1ng0ICC9 Solid choices and good recommendations! I also like and use Vanguard. I have found that if people need a lot of guidance and help (not computer savvy), they can get frustrated with Vanguard’s customer service. I do find their trading platform intuitive and it improves incrementally.
I haven’t used Fidelity since the 1990s, I liked them well enough but just wasn’t fond of their fees at the time, so being a cheap skate I moved to Vanguard.

2ueu+1ng0ICC9 - good choice. My recommendation is to go with Fidelity or Vanguard AND buy t-bills in their platform (4, 8, 17 weeks…).

Why?

Safest investment
Liquid, you can sell a t-bill on the secondary market if you need the money ASAP without losing
No state income tax on the interest

Vanguard cash account (called settlement account) is currently paying APY 5.04%. Best place to hold cash for short term at moment.

@1rzl+1ng0ICC9 until you are certain about your employment park your money where it is safe. Some examples

treasurydirect.gov - you can purchase t-bills of various duration (4wk/8wk/13wk/26wk/52wk) Easy to set up. You can also purchase Ibonds
Marcus.com - online savings account in the 4% range for interest. Or CDs in the 4-5% range. Easy to set up
Schwab.com - also has CDs in 5%

Various other institutions offer savings and CDs

Once your life settles down you can take the time to change investments if you wish. But for now a safe liquid parking spot with 4-5% interest rate would be good idea.

Do NOT put your money in places line Ford Credit Money Market account. It is not secured, if Ford bankrupts you can kiss that money good-bye.

if u maxed your 401k, open IRAs or after doing your homework on risks, consider investing the severance in T-Bills, you will earn some interest and will not have to pay state taxes.

What are the options for taking severance? I already maxed out my 401k this year

Excellent advise, thank you. My advise to all is save all your work immediately by whatever means necessary. Google drives, email, put your computer in ' safe mode ' and you can copy/ send your work. Think how you want to take your severance pay. The lump-sum will bump you into a tax bracket that will shock you! I rolled it into my 401K and IRA. Also, as the original poster stated beware of Right Management, i did not trust them, Ford will ask some to sign NDAs - to he-l with Ford. Take a short time to recover then quickly regroup and focus on a new position. There are ALOT of positions available at all the tech, automotive and supplier companies - I was terminated last August with 24 years and landed a position with a well known entertainment company - don't sell yourself short - the experience you have will serve you well at far better places than Ford.

Be extremely cautious dealing with NESE. They have representatives that will miss lead you because they don’t know what they’re doing. Don’t take the word of the one person You talk to, call back several times and see if you get the same story. Be very careful.

You absolutely do not need to sign up for health care through VIA. I spoke with an independent healthcare advisor about my choices and signed up through healthcare.gov. VIA is just a broker for the same health care plans offered through healthcare.gov, and the VIA licensed experts usually provided very incorrect information. I retired in November and my payouts were received in 22CY. For 23CY, I am living off savings, showing little income, and my/wife premium is $74/mo while the government pays $1300/mo for us. This was a better deal for us than COBRA. BEWARE - if Ford gives you a HRA, be very careful. You cannot take use both the HRA and receive government subsidies in the same CY. You need to defer your HRA funds IF you want to do the government tax credit subsidies.

@1viw: Thanks for the tip. For someone who started at Ford before 2001, are they able to use the money they get from Ford towards Humana, Cigna, United Health plan?

Absolutely DO NOT create a Healthcare.gov account - DO NOT. You will get confusing and conflicting info every time you call, coupled with super expensive premiums that NOBODY accepts. Look for a good ST plan from the big carriers like Humana, Cigna, United Health.... They offer great competing products to Healthcare.gov, which I found to be much cheaper, but aren't part of the site/program. You should also consider Cobra but be forewarned that your severance runs concurrent to it, meaning your total Cobra time period is 18 mos - your severance period benefits. I'm also not sure if seniority affects Cobra as well - you might have to have at least 1 year.

Be aware, on your severance pay your tax withholding will be at the supplemental rate, just like your bonus. That means after Fed and State withholding, and FICA and Medicare withholding, you'll take home about 66.1% of the amount. Some are shocked by that. You'll likely get a chunk of that back next year at tax time, but that won't help you now.

@fzx No, I was referring to when you talk to VIA Benefits. You will have all sorts of coverage plans to choose from on their website. You can do your selections there, but if you talk to one of the analysts, they will have another option available that was not on their website. Its essentially a discounted coverage plan for poor people. If you dont have any income, the government considers you indigent. You could have a million in your checking account with no taxable income and qualify as poor. That why I said your severance is part of your income for THIS year. Next year (assuming you dont find another job or start drawing on your IRA) your income will be very low and you would qualify for the discounted coverage plan. COBRA was just too expensive for me. But you brought up another interesting point. I created a healthcare.gov account AND talked to VIA. This caused me problems because they turned out to be competing entities. If I had to do it all over again, I would not create a healthcare.gov account until VIA told me to do it. VIA is the single entry point for healthcare..... not that its that great, but its slightly easier than dealing with the government.

Thank you for taking the time to share this good advice. Maybe I will be the one sharing it a year from today?

"you will be eligible for a HUGE discount in healthcare premiums next year. (VIA wont automatically tell you this). Mine went from $385 a month to $79 a month because I lived on my severance into the next year and didnt have any income. Some people say buy COBRA, but that didnt work out for me as well as the discount. You have to do your math on this one."

Are you referring to Healthcare.gov vs COBRA?

Thanks for the good advice!

Thread regarding Ford layoffs

To the unfortunate folks:

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