The Retirement Plan of Cayuga Medical Center is terminating. Soon you'll choose between a lump sum you roll to an IRA and a monthly annuity for life. It's a once-only call — and we help you make it with the numbers in front of you.
Your statement from BPAS has a lot of defined-benefit language in it. Underneath the jargon, it comes down to three facts.
Benefit accruals stopped on September 30, 2024. Your years of service and pay are locked in — the number on your statement won't keep growing.
Because the plan is terminating, your benefit is distributed on the Anticipated Distribution Date — not at some far-off retirement age. The money comes due now.
A one-time lump sum you can roll to an IRA, or a monthly annuity for the rest of your life. Choose once, live with it for decades.
There's no universally right answer — there's the right answer for you. Here's the real shape of the trade-off, using a hypothetical CMC employee as the example.
Estimated lump sum as of December 1, 2026, in this sample.
Where we come in
We open and manage the rollover IRA for you — invested for your timeline, drawn down to minimize lifetime tax.
Estimated immediate life annuity at the Dec 1, 2026 distribution date (sample).
Where we come in
We invest the part of that check you don't need in a taxable account — so the surplus keeps compounding instead of sitting idle.
Figures are a hypothetical example for a CMC employee in their late 50s and are illustrative only — not drawn from any one person's statement. Your statement will show different numbers. In this example, the age-65 ("normal retirement") life annuity was about $2,910/month before the early-commencement reduction.
That lump sum isn't a figure the plan chose. It's the annuity, run backward into a single present value, using IRS-mandated segment interest rates and a federal mortality table. The formula is fixed by law (IRC §417(e)).
Here's the part most people miss: higher interest rates produce smaller lump sums. The same monthly benefit is worth less as a one-time check when rates are high, because a smaller pile is assumed to grow faster. Your number was locked to a specific month's rates — so the environment when you elect genuinely moves the figure.
The honest question isn't "lump sum or annuity?" It's "what return would I need to beat the annuity the lump sum is replacing?" That's a number we can actually compute for you — and it reframes the whole decision.
How this lump sum was set
Illustrative figures. Your final lump sum may be higher or lower depending on the actual distribution date and the rates in effect then.
Read your statement and flag any errors to BPAS by August 1. Wrong service dates or pay history change the benefit — catch it early.
We run the lump sum and the annuity side by side against your savings, your spouse, your health, and your tax picture. One sitting.
When BPAS opens your election, we make sure the paperwork — direct rollover, account type, withholding — is done the clean, untaxed way.
Lump sum lands in your IRA, or the annuity starts and we invest the surplus. Either way, the money has a job the next day.
When a pension terminates, the calls start — firms whose advice somehow always ends with moving your money to them. We're fee-only, so we have no reason to push either path.
If the annuity is the better fit for you, we'll say so — and then help you invest what you don't spend. We get paid the same either way.
Fee-only means the recommendation isn't for sale.
It depends — on your health, whether you have a spouse, your other savings, interest rates, and what lets you sleep at night. We model both paths side by side, in plain dollars. What we won't do is steer you to the lump sum just because it's the answer that pays an advisor.
Your lump sum is calculated from IRS segment interest rates and a mandated mortality table — not from what the plan feels like paying. Because higher rates produce smaller lump sums, the rate environment when you elect matters. We'll show you how your number was built and what it's worth against the annuity it replaces.
A direct rollover from the plan to a traditional IRA is not a taxable event — the money keeps growing tax-deferred until you withdraw it. The taxable mistakes happen in the paperwork: an indirect distribution, the wrong account type, or mandatory withholding. We help you do it the clean way.
The statement asks you to flag any errors by August 1, 2026, with the distribution anticipated December 1, 2026. The election window itself comes from BPAS — and it's one of the few financial choices you make exactly once. Doing nothing usually means a default election, which may not be the one you'd have chosen.
No. Ithaca Wealth is an independent, fee-only registered investment adviser. We're not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Cayuga Medical Center, Cayuga Health, or BPAS — we work for you, not the plan.
A relaxed, 20-minute conversation. No pressure, no pitch — just an honest read on which path fits your life.
Book a conversation →Ithaca Wealth is an independent, fee-only registered investment adviser and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Cayuga Medical Center, Cayuga Health System, or BPAS Actuarial & Pension Services, LLC. Those names are used solely to identify the employer and the administrator of the benefit plan discussed.
The dollar figures shown are a hypothetical example and are illustrative only — they are not drawn from any individual's statement, and are not a quote, projection, or representation of your benefit. Plan provisions, applicable interest rates, mortality assumptions, and tax rules change, and final amounts are determined by the plan and its administrator. Nothing on this page is individualized investment, tax, or legal advice; we verify every strategy against your current plan documents and personal situation before recommending it.