A colleague of mine believes my previous company will be offering pension buy-outs for former employees not currently receiving benefits which would include me. I am skeptical because they would take a current financial hit now to get rid of future costs the company will incur to make up for pension underfunding. Doesn't seem to be the way executives think in 2017.
My annuity starts Feb 1, 2027 and there are options at that time to take a reduced pension for my wife to get the same amount after I die. If I die before I start receiving my pension my wife gets 48.5% of the monthly amount for life. If we both die our kids would get 48.5% of the monthly pension amount x 60 instead of a monthly amount.
Can someone help me understand how to compute the present value of this annuity or a rough approximation for each 1,000 of monthly benefit? I would be inclined to take such an offer just to remove the risk of the company defaulting or weaseling out of paying the full amount. Based on the PBGC tables the maximum guaranteed amount is less than 33% of my pension amount. The company is profitable, but has been underperforming and selling off good businesses for over a decade due to incompetent leadership that was recently replaced. The new leadership is looking to shrink the company more, but it's unlikely any of the cash will be used to fund the pension.