The PBGC will increase to $5,000, from $3,500, the amount of lump-sum payouts to participants in pension plans that have been shut down or taken over by the agency. Participants still will have the choice of declining the payout and taking an annuity instead, if the monthly benefit is $25 or more.
``We will continue to urge lump-sum recipients to save for their future by transferring the payments directly into another retirement plan such as an IRA,'' said PBGC Executive Director David M. Strauss.
