pension buy back Archives - The Golden AlbatrossThe Golden Albatross

Pension Analysis Services

I made some subtle changes to The Golden Albatross webpage the other day. First, on the home (aka splash) page, I added three paragraphs under a subsection called “Services” that briefly describe the paid pension analysis services I now offer. Those paragraphs also quickly explain why I’m charging for services. Second, I created a permanent page called Pension Analysis Services, where I provide an in-depth explanation of the range of services on offer. I also explain the technicalities of how hiring my services works.

In case you don’t want to click away, here it is.

Since “what I offer” got a web page, I wanted to circle back with an article about “why.” By doing so, I will have a permanent explanation for anyone who asks, nested under the “what I offer” page. More importantly, I want to explain “why” because paying me pension analysis is a marked departure from the original intent for The Golden Albatross website. In all, I provide five solid reasons, which I list below. Continue reading →

The Set Up

A reader (let’s call her Buffy) recently asked me if I could help her and her husband (let’s call him Angel) determine if “buying years back” from Angel’s pension would be worth it. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of “buying years back”, it basically means under certain circumstances a worker can pay the pension fund to add years onto their final pension calculation. I only learned of the concept of “buying years” after starting this blog. Although the concept appears common in many European retirement systems, and the Canadian national system; the feature is reserved for public pension systems at the local, state, and (non-military) federal level in the U.S. The worker usually qualifies through special circumstances like prior military service (that fell short of pension eligibility), or previous participation in a separate public pension system (e.g. a teacher who moves from one school system to another).