Retirement Info

I want to pass this along in case someone reading may have retirement questions. If you were on e of the many Conoco (or Phillips) employees laid off before you were 50, you stand to have a separation retirement if you were retirement vested (worked 5 or 10 years). That is generally true of any company where an employee is retirement vested by whatever rules govern that. Find out about your situation! A friend of mine who worked for the company 25 years was 49 when he was laid off and didn't know he had a pension coming. That is because the outplacement folks at the time were often clueless and untrained to speak about pensions. Often they told the laid off folks that they didn't think there was anything pensionwise. If you are a former Conoco or Phillips employee, go to hr.conocophillips.com and check things out. There are contact phone numbers for companies and various subsidiaries under the menu guide. You have to register for upcoming retirement with them. And in behalf of a number of folks around here who have wondered about which of the 2 new companies will be handling their pension (Is it CP or P66??), the HR guys haven't found out yet--announcement coming in May or June. They don't even know how their department will be split yet. So stay tuned. However, no concerns whether pensions will still be paid. The company has a legal requirement to pay them and can't duck the requirement. Only in event of bankruptcy, does the governement Pension Guarantee Corp. take over.

My friend who had the 25 years service and who said he struggled two years with what-do-I-do-with-my-life-now questions, it turns out will get nearly $2000 a month pension.