One reason State Farm is doing soooo much hiring and is about to be overstaffed, is they are going to freeze the pension for pension eligible employees. People already receiving benefits will be fine for now. I know it has been mentioned a lot as this "rumor" comes up all the time. State Farm announced that Vanguard is going to start managing SF employee and retiree 401k plans..... in anticipation of the pension changes. It's coming! Once the pension plan is frozen, the existing employees with move to a new 401k match. Anyone with any tenure will start looking for a job and leave. Why stay right? Sh-t hole! Even thought SF cannot hire anyone and the people they are hiring are absolutely bottom of the barrel, they have to find a new way to cut expenses and higher salaries. It will MT's announcement later this year and his final F-U to employees before he retires!
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Id--ts told me the pension was ending and the agent contract was about to change…..for my entire career. I’m retired now, and they still haven’t changed. You people know nothing.
@3bw2 Yes, at the time there was a $600 matching contribution along with the pension. There were years the match was not given due to financial losses.
State Farm employee from 1994 - 1999. Elected to go Independent prior to the 5-year pension vest. I do not recall a 401k option during those years. Did State Farm run a 401k and Pension at the same time - if so, when did that start? Cheers!
Why do they keep increasing salary minimums and maximums?
Understand please that this forum is dominated by one individual who makes, roughly speaking, the same types of threads over and over. Spend enough time here and youll spot him fast, due to the vocabulary, and general "IQ" of the post. Like saying "they are over hiring because they are getting rid of the pension" which doesn't make sense. Also, the pension was removed i think for all hires after 2021. Getting rid of the pension all together would require a payout for those vested, and again doesn't make sense to do that.
We have been perma-understaffed within all of our core functions since 2015 at least. Its gotten to the point where its now both costing customers more, and resulting in nearly unacceptable service.
You cant fix this by mass hiring people, because this isnt an industry you want to work in, and no one wants to be a claim handler unless they have to.
But yeah very easy to spot the guy who spams this forum with low quality troll bait.
So it’s about 6 months since this was posted, no place in claims is over staffed. Many sections have mandatory OT, plus claims has not been able to post for other jobs for the last 6 months. The company is barely able to keep up with turnover, much of your post is a reach.
Oh my you are gonna be in for the shock of your life. I have been retired from State Farm for some time and I had some years in oh boy! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. It's not good my friend. It's not good. Who do you think makes these so-called laws???? I thought I had a great job, a big name like State Farm what could go wrong???? I don't know where I could even begin to tell you. Please please don't listen to these big greedy companies. Go work for yourself, sell insurance on your own. You have no idea how disappointing it is to find out what food stamps are when you thought that was only for people in third world countries, right? That would never be me? Well I'm not poor? Right? What? Why would I ever have to learn about food cards??? Churches are helpful too, the government actually gives them money for those who only qualify for 9.46 a month for help with your prescriptions and 23.10 for food stamps. Listen you can go to church now and get food. Each church in your area works together so that they don't both have a dinner night on the same night. Plus it works out that you can get a cooked meal each night they have a calendar print out of which one is hosting dinner on each day of the week. Don't worry my friend camping is over rated...really people look so silly touring the country in a Winnebago. Dream On
@2g the sample buyout data would also have to be compared to employees staying on books. Ex if 25yr employee is 50yrs old. Annual salary 75k and they work another 12yrs until full retirement age = 900k (so not completely out of reason) Not including company contributions to overall benefits package outside of salary. The numbers were just used as examples
Hey pension buyout guy, do you realize using your numbers a 25 yr employee buyout would be $1.5M
Ludicrous
I'm calling b.s.. pensions are protected.
Those are ridiculously high numbers and not supported at all by, you know, math.
In 2012, when some rules changed, I rolled over my pension into my IRA. I had been an employee from 1988 to about 1997. The rollover was approximately $25k. My wife had an old phone company pension rollover that was also about $25k.
A fair and mathematically sound “buyout” would give you approximately enough money to buy an annuity that would replace your expected pension income. Nothing more.
If SF offered a pension cash buy-out that may spark some interest from currently vested employees as well as SF 👍
Ex. the following formula
5-10 yrs of service $20 per year
11-15 yrs of service $30k per year
16-20 yrs of service $40k per year
21-25yrs of service $50k per year
25yrs of service $60k per year
@2fbyn-you either don’t work at SF or are just simply stating lies. SF has the largest investment department of any U.S. insurer and have lost no one. There were 2 age based retirements last year.
Pension sunset coming max out on 401k make sense. I’d rather be with Vanguard anyway. All of our investment team is gone.
Luckily its extremely easy for anyone who does work at State Farm to tell the difference between posters and threads made by people who dont work here, and threads that are. This was not a thread made by someone who worked at the company.
This thread is like 75% people posting who dont work here....someone came to this very site to learn about the pension???? yeah sure buddy. Share holders? need to update that posting bot to reflect the company its paid to post about....Why would they hire more people if they are over staffed? At what point, other than maybe 4 months right after COVID during the lock downs were we "over staffed"?? Its been the exact opposite since the legacy state farm destruction (transformative growth).
This site really needs to deal with the resident troll on the state farm specific forums, unsure if its some deranged ex-employee or this website itself trying to spark responses.
this is hilarious I only came to this site to study up on pension. where in the world did you guys get the pension will be ending. on the pension account. pension is not ending the 401K plan has been moved to vanguard which is still open there has been no changes to the pension account on any change is coming up.
Sooo, SF has no shareholders. Which means you are not an employee or you are ignorant. Which one?
Pension funds are placed beyond the reach of the companies who fund them, to protect the pensioners:
https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/retirement/erisa
I have no doubt at all that upper management at State Farm would love to have the opportunity to loot the fund in order to give money to their shareholders and get even more obscene personal compensation in appreciation for doing so.
Unfortunately for the corporate hogs, once vested in the plan, vested plan participants' benefits are protected from a variety of corporate malfeasance and incompetence. That is federal law. Funds are segregated from normal operating funds and the company loses access to them, except to add to them. All executives can do to impact the fund after that is to not fully fund the plan as promised.
One of the remaining vestiges of the care and respect that State Farm once had for their employees is that there IS a pension fund and that it is currently fully funded for all plan participants. If you are a vested plan participant, you will get what was promised from the fund, barring some larger financial catastrophe that impacts the fund, in which case the Federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation will pay the benefits or some portion of them.
https://www.pbgc.gov/
I advise pension plan participants to explore the information at both links so that you understand your rights. Do not make any uninformed decisions.
Not surprised that SF management is claiming that, like COLA, employees want to give up their pension in favor of a 401K plan when earlier employees had both.
Ooh, it’s mid month. Must be about time for another ignorant pension post.
This site stopped being useful after the LOC shutdown bonanza a few years back. Leadership was aware people were freaking out in certain locations before it was announced ect. Im fairly certain they have PR firms doing bot like well poisoning here, flooding the board constantly with childish posts. Its still good to vent here, think of it as screaming into nothingness rather than having a conversation.
Real employees still post here, it is very easy to see who does and who doesnt based on what they talk about, and frankly how they speak ect. It will never be like it once was, as its definitely monitored, and no one in a real position of power will ever give a "heads up" again, just not worth the risk.
This is one of those threads made by someone clearly on the outside.
Remember when HCL movement was announced? And it blindsided everyone. Why? Because the few who knew about it don’t gossip. Same thing with the pension. If there are any changes the masses won’t find out until it’s officially announced. Any mention of a change in the pension plan on this site is purely speculative and nonsense. Not saying it won’t happen but you won’t hear about it on this site first.
A 401K with a strong matching is better thsn a pension. The value of a 402K can grow greatly over a set pension and the company typically matches more in a 401K and you can move a 401K shoulf you move on.
No company, let alone SF, has the legal authority to change any vested pension. Its one of the only things the government regulates in the private sector. This protection arose from the hostile takeovers of companies in the 1980s for company pension funds..UNLESS.. the laws have changed. Does anyone know? Now, retirement benefits can be changed at any time, only pension portion is protected. AND, lets say you've earned 20 years towards pension but SF decides its canceling all pensions on a certain date, they can do that but your 20 years under the old pension program is still protected. Kinda funky how that works.
The pension is 100% funded. State Farm has no reason to terminate the program for those accruing credits. Stop trying to pass off your wild, unfounded speculation as fact. It impedes those who want to use this site to exchange information when senior leadership are less than forthcoming.
I heard they're going to INCREASE pension payments
Complete nonsense.
More crapaganda from the minion crowd and the pathetic retiree with no life. So many lies and misstatements by them.
Do you people read your SF email at all? We did get an email about Vanguard taking over State Farms 401k plan and they will manage it. Also some more recent Pension changes. Makes sense if you are also about to freeze the current pension plan for eligible employees and move everyone over to strictly a 401k match like new hires that were hired after January 01, 2022. They keep using the excuse younger workers do not want a pension but "prefer" a 401k they can move around. LOL! I agree that every department is hurting for people but that is only temporary. SF ran off almost 40% of staffing from 2016 to 2021 and are now hiring them back at about half the salary as most that left. When the new people get the knowledge transfer they are going to let go of the remaining people that have not retired or left. Dump salaries! When they start downsizing other areas....then they will be way over staffed and let the layoffs begin! You have not learned anything from their track record...laugh at all the mo--ns that think they will ever get staffing right. It's a burn and churn scam still...just a process. We did this back in 2013 and 2014 too.... Get back to work you AHT sucks!
Agree with comments regarding OP. Also, the post about Vanguard is ridiculous. They have nothing to do with SF investment department. So much false information on this site .
You can tell which posters and threadmakers dont actually work for the company. Overstaffed? I dont know a single dept that isnt completely drowning in work to the point the company can barely function. What year were you terminated OP? Just curious. Was it like the 90s?
There is seriously just one guy who posts here all day long that does this "well poisoning" by ruining the discussions. If this guys posting style and vocab were not so obvious it might somewhat work too...
@zus I totally agree with everything you said in your post. Also, what the OP said I totally agree with.
Yes it seems like every year they are making more and more changes to move away from the pension plan. Outsourcing to HCL was also part of the migration away from the pension and/or to reduce their burden of future benefits/contributions. They really want to do it before they starting shutting down a lot of the underwriting jobs that are getting automated in the next couple of years. I know they are hiring and hiring but this is very short lived for the immediate need. They will have to shut down the growth and will be over staffed in claims and if needed will back fill with anyone from U/W or other areas that are about to out source or consolidate. Most will just take the severance and leave. Everyone forgets they are still trying to consolidate all of our contact center roles! No reason the same person can't take a payment, record a new claim, or explain a balance due or add a car. The pension is on its last leg, Vanguard has been used before to help companies shut down their pension! That's exactly what my prior company did and who they used!
Injury claims was suppose to be hiring ahead, so many people have left that now they are just plugging holes. The injury CS position takes years to be competent, freezing the pension removes the handcuffs for them. Claims is in a bad place.
this site is too silly
What’s the source on this? Are you saying those who are vested will be moved to the new 401ks implemented after 2019? If so I can expect quite a few people to leave since that’s a huge benefit for staying in this meat grinder they call The Farm
Pensi9bs and 401k are not the same thing...and English does not seem to be your primary language. Try it again.