This document discusses how to maximize your pension benefits. It explains the two main pension payout options: single life, which pays the highest monthly amount but stops at death, and joint survivor, which pays less each month but continues to a surviving spouse. It then introduces pension maximization as a strategy to take the single life option for maximum income during life, while also protecting a spouse through life insurance that would replace the lost pension at death. This allows receiving the higher single life payment during retirement while also providing for a spouse.

1. How to Maximize Your Pension
If you’ll be getting a pension in retirement, you have a lot of decisions to make. One of the most important is deciding
whether to choose the “single life” or “joint and survivor” option.
“Single life” will give you the most monthly income for your entire life. But when you die, the income ends. This option
is therefore usually best only for people who are single, because if you are married and your spouse outlives you,
your spouse loses the pension income you’ve been receiving when you die.
That’s why most married people select the “joint and survivor” option. This option pays income for as long as you live
— and keeps paying after you die, for as long as your spouse lives. But the income you both get is less than the
amount that would have been paid under the “single life” option — 6% to 25% less.
Fortunately, there is a way to both protect your spouse and retain the higher income. It’s called “pension
maximization.” Here’s how it works:
You purchase an adequate amount of life insurance coverage on yourself, naming your spouse as
beneficiary. The death benefit should be enough to replace any lost pension benefits if you die first.
At retirement, you take the “single life“ option. This way, you receive the maximum pension benefit for as
long as you live.
You then use a portion of the higher pension income you’re receiving to pay the insurance premiums.
Call us to check if this strategy will fit for you.