2nd interview with CFPB - safe agency?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work there ; it’s safe and much better than GS Schedule but culture depends on where you work within the agency.

How's the culture on the admin side - not attorneys or analysts, but more like HR, IT support, etc.?

I am familiar with the Operations side of CFPB. Overall the people are great and the culture is good. A couple caveats: the contracting shop is rough. The HR shop is always under a LOT of scrutiny and pressure from all sides- management and staff. And they rarely get credit for being as good as they are. IT is big, currently undergoing a leadership transition (one of many in short time the agency has been open), so that is unpredictable.

And if the Director changes any time in the next year (depending on the election), I would expect dramatic changes (organizational, systems, structures, etc.) that would require a LOT from Operations to implement. It would be exciting and rewarding, but not at all easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if you go back to a FERS agency what do you lose?

Service credit. You could still pull whatever vested pension you would be entitled to from the Fed system, but you would (generally) have to work 20 more years in FERS to be retirement eligible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you go back to a FERS agency what do you lose?

Service credit. You could still pull whatever vested pension you would be entitled to from the Fed system, but you would (generally) have to work 20 more years in FERS to be retirement eligible.

i think the real kicker is that you would have to work 5 more years to re-vest in the FERS pension, so those could potentially be lost years if you, say, left FRB/CFPB at 57 and went to Treasury, but then decided you wanted to retire before 62. You need minimum 5 years of service to be eligible retire at 62, and you don't get the retirement health benefits if you you aren't eligible to retire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you go back to a FERS agency what do you lose?

Service credit. You could still pull whatever vested pension you would be entitled to from the Fed system, but you would (generally) have to work 20 more years in FERS to be retirement eligible.

i think the real kicker is that you would have to work 5 more years to re-vest in the FERS pension, so those could potentially be lost years if you, say, left FRB/CFPB at 57 and went to Treasury, but then decided you wanted to retire before 62. You need minimum 5 years of service to be eligible retire at 62, and you don't get the retirement health benefits if you you aren't eligible to retire.

Interesting. So, I'm mid 40s with another 15 years of Fed service to go. In those shoes, what do most folks recommend. Seems like you need to make a rash decision when hired whether you intend to stay there for the duration of your career, or you screw yourself if you leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you go back to a FERS agency what do you lose?

Service credit. You could still pull whatever vested pension you would be entitled to from the Fed system, but you would (generally) have to work 20 more years in FERS to be retirement eligible.

i think the real kicker is that you would have to work 5 more years to re-vest in the FERS pension, so those could potentially be lost years if you, say, left FRB/CFPB at 57 and went to Treasury, but then decided you wanted to retire before 62. You need minimum 5 years of service to be eligible retire at 62, and you don't get the retirement health benefits if you you aren't eligible to retire.

Sure, that's a risk of leaving FRB/CFPB, but if you're not going to opt in to the pension, why move to the Board?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you go back to a FERS agency what do you lose?

Service credit. You could still pull whatever vested pension you would be entitled to from the Fed system, but you would (generally) have to work 20 more years in FERS to be retirement eligible.

i think the real kicker is that you would have to work 5 more years to re-vest in the FERS pension, so those could potentially be lost years if you, say, left FRB/CFPB at 57 and went to Treasury, but then decided you wanted to retire before 62. You need minimum 5 years of service to be eligible retire at 62, and you don't get the retirement health benefits if you you aren't eligible to retire.

Sure, that's a risk of leaving FRB/CFPB, but if you're not going to opt in to the pension, why move to the Board?

Pension aside, the overall compensation and benefits (health insurance premiums, etc.) are much better than almost any other federal agency.

Moving from another independent financial regulator without opting into the pension from a monetary perspective is probably a wash from a dollars perspective, sure. But CFPB has an awesome and exciting mission. People are genuinely drawn to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you go back to a FERS agency what do you lose?

Service credit. You could still pull whatever vested pension you would be entitled to from the Fed system, but you would (generally) have to work 20 more years in FERS to be retirement eligible.

i think the real kicker is that you would have to work 5 more years to re-vest in the FERS pension, so those could potentially be lost years if you, say, left FRB/CFPB at 57 and went to Treasury, but then decided you wanted to retire before 62. You need minimum 5 years of service to be eligible retire at 62, and you don't get the retirement health benefits if you you aren't eligible to retire.

Interesting. So, I'm mid 40s with another 15 years of Fed service to go. In those shoes, what do most folks recommend. Seems like you need to make a rash decision when hired whether you intend to stay there for the duration of your career, or you screw yourself if you leave.

I thought you just needed to stay 5 years to vest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you go back to a FERS agency what do you lose?

Service credit. You could still pull whatever vested pension you would be entitled to from the Fed system, but you would (generally) have to work 20 more years in FERS to be retirement eligible.

i think the real kicker is that you would have to work 5 more years to re-vest in the FERS pension, so those could potentially be lost years if you, say, left FRB/CFPB at 57 and went to Treasury, but then decided you wanted to retire before 62. You need minimum 5 years of service to be eligible retire at 62, and you don't get the retirement health benefits if you you aren't eligible to retire.

Interesting. So, I'm mid 40s with another 15 years of Fed service to go. In those shoes, what do most folks recommend. Seems like you need to make a rash decision when hired whether you intend to stay there for the duration of your career, or you screw yourself if you leave.

I thought you just needed to stay 5 years to vest

The "vesting" primarily is in the employer contribution to the 401(k). You have to stay five years to actually get that.

It also takes a few years to get vested in the pension, but it is based on a "Years of service" calculation. If you leave after under ten years, it isn't much and you would want to pull another pension. To pull that from FERS, you would need to work another 20 years after leaving CFPB/FRB. So there are many people that, when they transfer into the CFPB and already have a number of years in FERS, they choose to stay in, because it is already a very good pension and it gives them flexibility if they ever want to go back to a FERS agency (which does include most of the other financial regulators on the higher pay scale.)

[Anonymous]

Why do you have to work 20 more years at a FERS agency? Let’s say you have 15 years at a FERS agency and then 5 or 10 at CFPB and then go back to FERS. How long do you need at the second FERS agency before becoming eligible for the FERS pension/retirement?

[Anonymous]

CFPB is a great agency. The benefits and pay are awesome and they aren’t going away any time soon. Current leadership sucks though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to work 20 more years at a FERS agency? Let’s say you have 15 years at a FERS agency and then 5 or 10 at CFPB and then go back to FERS. How long do you need at the second FERS agency before becoming eligible for the FERS pension/retirement?

5 years to retire at 62. 10 years to retire at minimum retirement age (57). You need 20 years to retire *before* MRA.

As someone who is mid-40s and potentially looking to move to CFPB, basically I'd choose the pension and plan to stay in until 57, or plan to only more to the FRB or industry. The economists I work with say the optimal scenario would be to just go to CFPB 5 years before retirement. Or find a nice GS-7 job and chill in semi-retirement for 5 years to get the health insurance.

https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/fers-information/eligibility/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to work 20 more years at a FERS agency? Let’s say you have 15 years at a FERS agency and then 5 or 10 at CFPB and then go back to FERS. How long do you need at the second FERS agency before becoming eligible for the FERS pension/retirement?

5 years to retire at 62. 10 years to retire at minimum retirement age (57). You need 20 years to retire *before* MRA.

As someone who is mid-40s and potentially looking to move to CFPB, basically I'd choose the pension and plan to stay in until 57, or plan to only more to the FRB or industry. The economists I work with say the optimal scenario would be to just go to CFPB 5 years before retirement. Or find a nice GS-7 job and chill in semi-retirement for 5 years to get the health insurance.

https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/fers-information/eligibility/

So this doesn’t matter if you plan to keep working to MRA.

[Anonymous]

Does CFPB only match to 5% on TSP? It seems that FDIC and SEC match higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does CFPB only match to 5% on TSP? It seems that FDIC and SEC match higher.

CFPB matches 7%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does CFPB only match to 5% on TSP? It seems that FDIC and SEC match higher.

CFPB matches 7%.

Sorry, are you sure? I couldn’t seem to find it on their website.