I'm scared by the word "pension" also, but MBCBP is a fully funded account outside of Delta's grasp. The only WDTTDT moment so far has been the delay in crediting funds to the account. I haven't dug into the exact math behind crediting gains to the account, but my guess is somebody is making a few $ off the float from the delayed contributions. At 59.5 *, you can roll funds out of the plan into your own account.

*see fine print in plan for criteria


PSA - Update your plan befeficiaries. They do not automatically carry over from your other Fidelity plans.

 

You are supposed to receive interest on your contributions between the time you earn them and they show up in the “fund.” In my case the amount shown in my mbcbp the middle of this month exceeds 16% * my October earnings by a small but not insignificant amount,

 

Explanation I was given is that SAP calculates our paychecks, and they won’t display anything on the pay stub that they don’t calculate themselves. To comply with IRS rules, Fidelity calculates the contribution (which is not a simple 16/17/18%) and sends the bill to Delta to contribute. That payment is once a month, which is standard for DB plan funding, and the results posted by the subsequent 15th, however interest accruals start back to the date of contribution. So while SAP could calculate a contribution number based on a percentage, it’s not the same number that Fidelity calculates, even though the value is identical.

There are no fund allocations listed because there aren’t any. The funds are invested according the investment strategy required by the PWA. Last I read, the company chose not to invest in any specific commercial/retail funds and elected to self-manage, which if you’ve been following the NWA DB plan, they’ve got a reasonably successful track record.

 

This. DB plan funding works differently than a DC (which actually can be only once a month -think 401k-, DL does it per pay period) but a DB plan is journaled at the end of the month. Easiest analogy is when someone talks FAE, it's 12/24/36/etc months. Not per pay period. In the end the money moves and the balance of your "part" is displayed. These plans are new to the airline world (pretty sure DL is the first, others are now implementing) but cash balance plans aren't new to the likes of other professions that hit the 415c1A limit or 401A17 limit (total contribution or income; whichever first). Fidelity knows what they are doing and it all gets back checked along the way. Payroll companies (SAP for DL) have to be able to figure out taxable income (current year) to display on a stub, and tax form...well; as previous poster mentioned, it's now not taxable and a DL to Fidelity function instead of showing excess/excess plus previously, which was taxable. Can't post outside the math you can't show. Still work to be done there, but the math can be figured out. Let it go for another month and you will be able to do the math on the journaling to see the 401K DC contribution hitting the MBCBP DBfund. Looked at this post for a bit to try and keep it clean and concise. Best I have to explain.

 

Thanks for the explanations - it still leaves me unsettled that I have no way to check that the balance in my account matches the contributions that Delta gives to Fidelity. Month to month comparisons are clouded by the compounding investment returns (that I can’t reconcile either, because it’s an unpublished phantom investment). I don’t see why this can’t be clearer on a monthly statement - I thought the plan was commingled funds, but still an “individual” account.

As a data point, I added the flight pay earnings for the 10/15+10/31 checks. My MBCBP balance is $4 less than 16% of flight pay. Am I adding wrong?

 

I don’t understand this bit. Why is it not a simple percentage?

 

What percentage is it then? This doesn’t make sense to me. The only exception I could see is the first paycheck with overflow (some goes to 401k and rest goes to MBCBP.) After that, it should be straight forward.

 

Edit: I re-read R&I 23-03 and see the “interest credits” aka the investment returns won’t appear on the Fidelity site until Dec 15. The timeline chart on page 2 clears it up some for me.
I was under the impression the current balance shown on the Fidelity site shows all company contributions AND investment returns since Oct. Guess I need to brush up on the terminology a little better.

 

The way I read it is similar. In summary, the balance displayed no later than the 15th is a snapshot of the balance on the last day of the previous month. It includes all contributions for that previous month, as well as the balanced carried into the month, and interest earned on that balance carried into the month.

Since the first update on Nov 15 was a snapshot of Oct 31, which was the first deposit into the plan, there would not be interest credits earned as of the snapshot and no surprise that they aren’t displayed.

If there are no interest credits showing on the Dec 15th update, someone’s got some splaning to do. In the meantime, I’ll give some benefit of the doubt. If even half the panicked reactions and insinuations shared on this and other web boards were true, there’d be a litany of IRS, SEC, and DFR lawsuits available to harmed pilots. Something tells me they thought of that, and the plan will work as advertised. Just a hunch.

 

Yep. I for one opted out. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I'm a stupid idiot.