Former employer (small Maryland city) refusing to provide retirement statement

[PhilSunkel]

From 1983 to 1999 I was employed by a small municipal city in Maryland and was vested in the retirement plan. When I left I received a statement of estimated retirement benefits and recently I contacted the City’s HR department hoping to get an updated statement. The HR department was very helpful and contacted the retirement plan administrator who responded “We don’t provide statements to former employees prior to their normal retirement date”. My normal retirement date would be in 2030. This doesn’t seem right to me. Does anyone know if there is a requirement to provide a participant with information on request? This really gives me a feeling that I’m going to have “complications” when it’s time for me to collect.

[Sprucebark]

What are you looking for, exactly?

Maybe you are using the wrong “words”. Try again and get someone else and don’t say “statement”- maybe ask for what your monthly entitlement will be when you reach the normal retirement age in 2030?

[PhilSunkel]

Sprucebark, maybe you are right. I’m really just trying to update some financial planning and determine if the amount of my pension is estimated to the the same as it was 24 years ago when I left the City and received my benefits statement. I’ve never received anything from the pension plan despite having the same address and thought that was odd. I assumed printing a new statement would not be a huge burden for them to provide.

[Zdex]

Would this plan be deemed a pension? If so, give this a read.

In any event, you are a beneficiary, and the pension plan unquestionably has a fiduciary duty to you to provide at least something. This response is at minimum a yellow flag, and I would follow up, and not let up until you have the appropriate statements and disclosures from the plan. Keep us updated on what you learn, and do, so others can learn as well.

[twh]

Sounds like miscommunication and/or incompetence. You worked there. You are or are not vested into something. They should be able to provide something that says something. Like that they even have you in the system.

[galawdawg]

Perhaps you might simply explain the information you are looking for. You worked for the city from 1983 to 1999. When you separated, you received an estimate of your retirement benefits. You'd like to receive an updated copy, is that possible? Also, you may find the information you are looking for in the plan documents you received when you were employed, so you may wish to review those.

I don't know how municipal pensions work in Maryland, but my experience with state and local government pensions in Georgia (defined benefit plans) is that if one separates after vesting but before retirement eligibility, the pension amount is "frozen" and is not adjusted between separation and when benefits begin.

For example: if one's final salary for pension calculations was $35k in 2000 when they separate after twenty (20) years of service and at the time of separation their monthly pension at age sixty (60) is estimated to be $1,116.67 (2% of final salary for each year of service) as shown on their benefits estimate, it is frozen at $1,116.67. That is the case even if the position they held now has an annual salary of $90,000.00. A former employee simply does not receive the benefit of increases in salary or cost of living adjustments (and thus increases in monthly pension benefit) that occur after separation.

I don't know if the same holds true for your former employer's pension plan. Much likely depends upon whether it is a defined benefit plan or a cash balance pension plan. Hope that is helpful.

[Watty]

If you have not done it already you should check to see if the plan administrator has an online account that you can set up to see the details of your pension.

It was with a private employer but I had a pension plan that was discontinued in the late 1990s. At that point it was converted to a cash balance plan which could be taken as a lump sum or as an annuity with different options.

The plan administrator was a large insurance company which also administered the companies 401k which I was in. When I was signed into their web site I could see both my 401k and pension.

For years I was getting an annual pension statement that seemed to come at random times of the year and even as late as the fall showing my pension as of January 1st. Once they were produced I could see a copy of my annual statement online. I continued working for that employer for a long time so I could have been getting the annual statements because I was still an employee.

I don't recall the details but one year I realized that I had not gotten my pension statement in the mail for maybe two years, that was likely after I retired. I checked on line and I could not see the statements online either but I could see my pension details online so everything was still OK.

I called to ask about the statement and I got the same story you did about them not giving the annual statement which I also thought was not right.

After that I would sign on every year to print out the details and put it into my year end financial folder. In my case I could see the lump sum amount or get a list of various pension options like a single or joint annuity with my wife and various survivor benefits. As I recall the January 1st numbers were not available until the late spring.

I had been doing that for at least five years when I unexpectedly started getting an annual statement in the mail again. I don't recall exactly when I got it but thinking back on it that might have been when I turned 62 so the change could have been because of my age or they could have just changed their policy.

If you cannot get signed on to their system you might be able to call up the plan administer and get them to send you a printout of all of your pension options for different starting ages, single, joint, ect. and they might be able to give you that instead of a formal statement.

...their normal retirement date....

My plan also had that phrase in it and I never did figure out just what the "normal retirement date" was. I had assumed that I would need to make the lump sum or traditional pension choice when I turned 65 but in talking to the plan administrator it turned out that actually did not need to do that until I turned 72 and the longer I delayed it the more I would get. I don't know if that was just my plan or if that is alway an option.

[PhilSunkel]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to post a reply and provide help. This has had me upset and I really appreciate the time everyone took to help.

Before I posted here I googled for additional information and found that there are requirements for private companies to provide requested information and statements but that requirement does not apply to government retirement plans. This is a very small police and fire retirement pension plan for one municipality that apparently isn’t bound by the same requirements.

I’m a bit uncomfortable with their unwillingness to provide any additional information at all and that I have to rely on a 24 year old statement for me (or my heirs) to receive a financial benefit I worked 16 years to earn. I’m going to call again later this week and see if I can get anything that acknowledges my participation in the plan and / or an estimated benefit amount.

Perhaps you might simply explain the information you are looking for. You worked for the city from 1983 to 1999. When you separated, you received an estimate of your retirement benefits. You'd like to receive an updated copy, is that possible?

You wrote and explained it better than I could have. That’s exactly what I said when I called and inquired and I was taken back when told that no additional information would be forthcoming.

[oldfatguy]

From 1983 to 1999 I was employed by a small municipal city in Maryland and was vested in the retirement plan. When I left I received a statement of estimated retirement benefits and recently I contacted the City’s HR department hoping to get an updated statement. The HR department was very helpful and contacted the retirement plan administrator who responded “We don’t provide statements to former employees prior to their normal retirement date”. My normal retirement date would be in 2030. This doesn’t seem right to me. Does anyone know if there is a requirement to provide a participant with information on request? This really gives me a feeling that I’m going to have “complications” when it’s time for me to collect.

If your pension is simply based on years of service and salary, then your benefit likely hasn't changed since you left, so there may not be anything to update.

FWIW, my state pension plan will only provide a statement of estimated benefits when you are within a year of retirement eligibility. And then they will only one statement per calendar year.

[galawdawg]

I’m a bit uncomfortable with their unwillingness to provide any additional information at all and that I have to rely on a 24 year old statement for me (or my heirs) to receive a financial benefit I worked 16 years to earn. I’m going to call again later this week and see if I can get anything that acknowledges my participation in the plan and / or an estimated benefit amount.

Was this a defined benefit plan (xx percent of your salary for each year of service)? If so, since you did receive an estimate of benefits at the time of separation I wouldn't worry about getting something that "acknowledges my participation in the plan and / or an estimated benefit amount." You've already got it and, with a defined benefit plan, it is highly unlikely that anything would have changed.

So nothing to get upset about IMO.

[livesoft]

Call your state representative and have their staff work on this for you.

[Kenkat]

One other thing you might ask for is the Summary Plan Description (SPD). While a governmental pension may not be required to provide this in the same way that private companies governed by ERISA are, one may be available. Here is one for the New York City Police Pension Plan, for example:

https://www.nyc.gov/html/nycppf/downloa ... _3_spd.pdf

If available, an SPD will explain how the pension plan works in terms of earning benefits, vesting, distribution of benefits, etc. While it won’t give you your exact benefit amount, it will tell you how the plan would calculate it and how your benefit can be accessed in the future.

In terms of a statement of your current benefit, as others have said, it is probably equal to your benefit when you left service unless there is some provision in the plan for an inflation increase, for example. That is one downside to pension plans earned earlier in life in which you leave the plan many years before retirement age.