Retirement: Corning Empower 401K Summary Plan Description
(Caution! Things change. You should verify this information independently.)
From someone on this email list. Good information to pass along. I'll add that there was a story about a retiree who selected "Installment Distribution" and assumed they could change or stop it later. They could not. That retiree then chose to move everything out of his Empower account, which of course stopped the installment distribution.
Some may find the attached document useful. This is the "Summary Plan Description" document for Corning's 401K at Empower. Of particular interest is that it clearly spells out Retiree withdrawal options. Since employees may retire between age 55 and 59.5 years of age, they would need to leave at least some money in this 401K to be able to utilize the "Rule of 55" to avoid the 10% early withdrawal penalty.
It appears there are 3 methods to get money out of the 401K
- Retiree Withdrawal - these are ad-hoc and the plan allows as many of these as desired - often used for living expenses, ROTH IRA Conversions, etc.
- Lump Sum - Everything is pulled out of the 401K, often used to rollover everything into an Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, etc..
- Installment Distribution - A series of periodic payments - NO CHANGES ALLOWED once initiated, although ad-hoc and lump sum withdrawals are still permitted.
Many more details are available in the attached document.