Clear Money Guide
What this guide covers
A quick view of the questions and evidence developed below.
Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: a pension election is usually irreversible and is made once, under a deadline, on a form that explains none of the tradeoffs. Two choices carry almost all the value. The first is lump sum versus income: the lump sum is calculated using interest rates, so the same pension is worth visibly different amounts in different years, and rolling it to an IRA can close the age-55 penalty exception you would otherwise have had. The second is single life versus joint and survivor, which is a decision about your spouse’s income after you die and is where the largest regret concentrates. Annuities you already own are a separate problem: getting out of one without triggering tax is possible, and the rules reward reading them first.
The lump sum decision
- The 20 Percent Held Back From a Pension Lump Sum Is Avoidable in One Step
- Your Plan May Be Barred From Paying You a Lump Sum
- Why Your Pension Lump Sum Moved When Rates Did
- You Cannot Roll Over a Monthly Pension, and That Is the Door That Closes
- Your Employer Offered a Pension Buyout: the Six Questions That Decide It
- The Age-55 Exception Dies the Moment You Roll the Money to an IRA
- The Pension Break-Even, Computed From the Two Numbers You Already Have
Survivor options and what a spouse keeps
- Single Life or Joint and Survivor: You Are Buying Insurance on the Second Death
- Spousal Consent to Waive a Survivor Annuity Takes Three Things, Not One
A pension election is made once, and it is usually irreversible.
If a buyout offer or an election deadline is in front of you, this is the clearest case for a second opinion before you sign. The matching service below introduces you to advisers who pay to meet you.
Before you start, what actually happens. The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. Kapitalwise sends your details to advisers who pay for the introduction, so expect calls and texts. Clear Money Guide is paid when you submit the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. This is free to you and there is no obligation to hire anyone.
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Getting out of an annuity
- You Can Leave the Contract Without Leaving the Tax Deferral
- Pledging an Annuity Is Taxable Before Any Money Moves
- A 1035 Exchange Is a Tax Rule, and the Surrender Charge Is Not a Tax
- Money Comes Out of an Annuity Gain First, Basis Last
- The Annuity Penalty Is Not the Retirement-Account One
Other pension and annuity questions
- An Annuity Owned by a Trust May Stop Being an Annuity for Tax
- The Annuity You Already Own: Keep It, Change It, or Get Out
- The Clock Starts When the Owner Dies, Not the Annuitant
- What PBGC Guarantees If Your Pension Fails, and When the Cap Actually Binds
The letter your plan sends every year
Separate from any decision, your plan must send an Annual Funding Notice — due within 120 days after the plan year ends, and required by law to be written so the average participant can understand it. The statute requires three years of the funded percentage side by side, which is the point most readers miss: the trend is the signal, and a single year is close to meaningless.
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