[quote=no_such_reality]The lump sum payments are stunning.
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I suspect much of these “one time payments” are their own money they’re getting back. My brother retired after 33 years with the SDPD last year, and would have been 4th on the list if the search criteria would have been different. But more than 2/3 of what he got was his money that he elected to defer. More than 90% was eligible for rollover. His ongoing pension, while healthy isn’t astronomical, and is much less than he earned while working.
Edited to add: I DID change the search criteria, and sure enough, he came up with a huge pension payout. Not quite as much as I thought, but I know to the penny what he got, and for some reason it doesn’t include everything. But it does include both his DROP payment and most but not all, of his deferred comp.