Preparing For Your Retirement

The thought of retirement can be, both, exciting and overwhelming. The process to get to retirement is rarely exciting and is most often overwhelming! That is why it makes sense to have a partner in the process that understands your company's retirement benefits and the steps to get you there. For Campbell's employees, Northwest Capital Financial Group wants to be that partner. We have helped many Campbell's employees retire over the years and not only understand the process, but can make it much less stressful for you by "holding your hand" every step of the way.

On this page, we want to outline the timeline for your retirement decision with Campbell's and share some thoughts on how to make the process as smooth as possible. Again, we will help you every step of the way.

CAMPBELL'S RETIREMENT TIMELINE

As soon as possible

If you think you know when you might retire, it is never too early to sit down and review your objectives and start to discuss your options. We recommend that you do this at least six months before your target retirement date and years in advance if you want help with building your own personalized retirement plan. Start by calling our office to schedule the first step in our process. If we are a good fit, we will sit down with you and help you begin to plan for the retirement lifestyle to which you aspire.

Six months before you retire

At this point, you will want to take a serious look at your pension, 401(k) and healthcare options. We will schedule a time for you to come in and log in to the Campbell's Benefit Center and review your pension and 401(k) options. We will begin to help you develop a budget for retirement to ensure that your available income and financial resources can help address those needs. We will also review the basics of the Campbell's Retiree Medical Account (RMA) and how this can best be utilized to help cover healthcare costs in retirement.

Three months before your last day of work

Approximately three months before your final day, you will need to contact Campbell's Benefit Center to "start the process". We can help you make this phone call, providing another set of ears and the expertise of having gone through the process with other retirees. On this call, you will indicate your planned retirement date and the benefits representative will prepare a retirement packet to be mailed to your home. Generally, it will take two to three weeks to receive this packet. The packet must be returned by the 5th of month preceding your retirement commencement date. Your retirement commencement date is the first day of the month following the month in which you retired.

Two months before retirement

Once you receive your retirement packet in the mail, contact our office to schedule a full review of the packet. By this time, we will have helped you determine whether your situation would benefit more from a monthly pension income or a lump sum payout. Depending on that election, we will help you filter through the paperwork and complete only those documents that pertain to your election - making sure that nothing is missed. We will then scan the completed forms into our document management system and mail them off for you.

One month before retirement

By this time we will have finalized the investment and retirement income strategy that gives you a good opportunity to address your needs. We will review the specific investment products and solutions and prepare any necessary paperwork in preparation for retirement.

Retirement day

Enjoy!! You earned it!

Two weeks after retirement

If you have a 401(k) plan, you have four options to consider: 1) leave the money in the Campbell's plan, 2) cash out the plan assets and pay income taxes and any applicable penalties, 3) rollover the money to a new employer's retirement plan, if you will still be working, or, 4) rollover the assets into and Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA) account. If you have elected to rollover or distribute your balance, this can normally be accomplished approximately two weeks after retirement. We will meet and have you login to the Campbell's Benefit Center or 401(k) site and can guide you through the process of properly distributing and/or rolling over your account.

Depending on whether you take the monthly pension income or a lump sum payout, the timing of your payments will be different. If you elect monthly income, those will begin in the month of your retirement commencement date. Lump sum payouts are normally made two months after your benefit commencement date, after all final calculations have been run. We will review the timing of your payouts as we proceed through the process.

Retirement is meant to be an enjoyable period, celebrating the years of hard work that enabled you to achieve financial freedom. We want to help you get to that desired lifestyle as smoothly as possible. Give us a call and schedule to begin this free consultation process and experience the difference that we have made for many of your fellow employees.