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"First, the "forever" standard is part of ERISA - maintain records as long as necessary to determine benefits payable - and frankly, it isn't that burdensome. Buy another hard drive or rent some cloud space on another server." Sure, easy to say now! We are all talking about something that happened (or, possibly, didn't happen) 20 years ago. Back then, computers had hard drives that could hold 20 megabytes (soon to jump to over 100!), and the only clouds were in the sky (and, depending on the season, might rain or snow). If you tried hard enough, you could save documents on floppy discs that held 1.4 megabytes of data. Most records then were kept on paper. So if the employer wanted to keep complete records forever but 18 years ago they were all destroyed in a flood or fire, how does the employer prove that the person has already been paid? And is "forever" forever when someone's benefit was already paid out?

Austin, you asked for suggestions. If you don't want any more just say so. The only one worth repeating is that the plan sponsor should retain counsel to get advice on what to say or not say to this person.

Oh yeah, absolutely MoJo. Will call the participant today and see if they would accept $10,000 just to leave us alone. That would be a terrific precedent to set...

The idea for this one came as a response to all the article about how the pension system is broken, 4019k) don't work, etc. we all know it's is never the participant's fault, as Harry Belefonte clearly explains in Jamaica Farewell Along the way I will squander my pay For that fun that comes daily on the mountain top I'll take expensive trips on sailing ships and I'll keep spendin' and spendin' and never stop Now its sad to say I'm in a four-oh-one K I'm not deferring or puttin' away My heart will be down When 65 comes around Because I'll have so little cash left to spend in town Sounds of laughter there everywhere And the dancing girls oh they sway to and fro I must declare that my heart is there Though my retirement savings they are real low Now its sad to say I'm in a four-oh-one K I'm not deferring or puttin' away My heart will be down When 65 comes around Because I'll have so little cash left to spend in town An S-U-V and theres plenty of beer And the poor gas mileage I dont really fear I spend a lot on the things that are nice And my promise is that I will save next year Now its sad to say I'm in a four-oh-one K I'm not deferring or puttin' away My heart will be down When 65 comes around because I'll have so little cash left to spend in town My heart will be down When 65 comes around because I'll have so little cash left to spend in town jamica.mid

which is why you've been composing so many pension songs lately.

Sorry, no can do.