Financial Planning for Lockheed Martin Employees
Turn Decades of Service into the Retirement You've Earned
Your Lockheed Martin Benefits Are Significant
They Can Also Be a Lot to Coordinate
You've spent years building toward retirement. But turning those years into a plan means making decisions that are more connected than they might appear. Your pension, company stock, income sequence, and retirement date all affect one another.
If you've also served in the military, the picture gets even more complex. A military pension, the Thrift Savings Plan, and VA benefits each come with their own rules, and they all need to work alongside your Lockheed Martin plan.
At Occidental Asset Management, we've built our practice around clients navigating exactly this kind of transition. With offices near major Lockheed Martin communities in California, Colorado, Florida, Washington, and Hawaii, and virtual service nationwide, we help bring every piece of your retirement picture into one clear plan so you can focus on the retirement you’ve been working toward for decades.
Your Lockheed Martin Benefits at a Glance
Lockheed Martin's compensation rewards employees who stay for the long haul. Here are the features that may matter most to your financial plan:
Capital Accumulation Plan (CAP), with two types of company contributions for most eligible employees: an automatic company contribution regardless of whether you contribute, plus a matching contribution on your own deferrals.
Company stock concentration that can quietly build a position deserving a closer look as retirement approaches.
A frozen salaried pension with a one-time election between a lump sum and monthly payments that cannot be revisited once made.
Mega backdoor Roth potential through after-tax contributions in the CAP, a strategy that can significantly expand tax-free retirement savings for those who qualify.
Deferred compensation and equity awards for management and executives, adding another layer of complexity to retirement timing decisions.
Retirement Decisions Shouldn’t Happen in Isolation
Each benefit comes with its own timing, tax treatment, and rules. The challenge is that none of them stands on its own. For example:
Your pension start date affects how much you need to draw from your CAP, and both can affect when it makes sense to claim Social Security.
Company stock built up over a long career may concentrate risk at the exact moment your paycheck stops.
A deferred compensation election made years ago can collapse income into a single year and reshape your entire tax picture at retirement.
Miss a vesting date because your retirement date didn't account for it, and that value is simply gone.
The decisions that feel administrative are often the ones with the longest reach.
Getting them right means seeing the whole picture, not just each piece on its own.
The Potential Cost of an Uncoordinated Pension Decision
$185,000
The Federal Tax Impact on a $500,000 Pension Lump Sum
A $500,000 pension lump sum taken all at once is taxed as ordinary income. At the top federal rate of 37%, that's a significant portion gone before you've had a chance to plan around it. State income taxes, where applicable, add more.
A coordinated plan can help you evaluate whether a lump sum makes sense and how to structure the decision before the tax bill is set.
Note: The $185,000 figure reflects the top federal ordinary income tax rate of 37% applied to a hypothetical $500,000 lump sum and is for illustrative purposes only. Actual tax liability depends on your total income, filing status, deductions, and state of residence. Individual outcomes will vary.
Putting the Pieces Together
Here's how we help Lockheed Martin employees step into retirement with confidence:
Clarify your pension options by modeling the lump sum and monthly payment paths side by side, before the election window closes.
Evaluate what you hold in company stock and build a strategic plan for what to keep, what to diversify, and when.
Map the income sequence across your pension, Social Security, and CAP withdrawals so your retirement income is steady, not reactive.
Identify Roth opportunities in the CAP and determine whether they belong in your plan.
Coordinate deferred compensation and equity timing so that distributions and vesting schedules work with your retirement date, not against it.
Integrate military benefits alongside your Lockheed Martin plan, an area where our team has deep familiarity.
Plan taxes across the transition from final salary to retirement income, working alongside your CPA so nothing arrives as a surprise.
Connect retirement to the rest of your life, including estate, insurance, and the goals that define what comes next.
What a Professional Retirement Plan Can Provide
Working with our team may feel different from what you expect. Our goal is to help you retire with:
Confidence, Not Second-Guessing
The pension election, the Social Security timing, the company stock decisions: We model your options so you can choose without wondering what you missed.
Precision, Not Approximation
Your plan is built around your actual benefits, numbers, and retirement date. It’s not a generic template for someone roughly like you.
A Plan That Holds Up
Retirement can span 30-plus years. We build strategies that account for income sequencing, healthcare, inflation, and the retirement you’ve envisioned.
Beyond Your Lockheed Martin Benefits
Your Lockheed Martin benefits are one piece of a larger picture. Our services include:
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Sequence your pension, Social Security, and withdrawals to help support a steady income.
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Model options before you elect, with your full financial picture in view.
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Manage the tax impact of transitioning from salary to retirement income over multiple years.
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Assess concentration in your CAP, and plan a deliberate, tax-aware path forward.
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Build a portfolio designed to work alongside your pension and support your retirement goals.
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Align distribution elections and vesting schedules with your retirement timeline and tax plan.
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Bring every piece of your financial life into a single plan tailored to your goals.
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Explore the beliefs and instincts shaping your money decisions, an Occidental specialty for Clients who want to go deeper.
About Your Occidental Team
Our team helps Lockheed Martin employees coordinate the moving parts of a long career's worth of benefits, navigate the retirement decisions ahead of them, and build a plan that supports the life they've earned. From offices near major Lockheed Martin communities in California, Colorado, Florida, Washington, and Hawaii, plus nationwide virtual service, we work with employees and retirees wherever they are.
Our work with Lockheed Martin employees and retirees is led by James Griffin, MBA, CFP®, Managing Principal in our Altamonte Springs office in the Orlando area. James leads comprehensive planning conversations across retirement, tax, estate, and cash flow needs, and he works extensively with retirees and military officers. He believes the greatest impact happens when a fiduciary advisor brings planning, portfolio design, and tax awareness together and explains it to the Client in plain English.
James is joined by a team whose credentials include the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® (CFP®) designation, which reflects extensive education and experience across investments, tax, retirement, estate, and risk management. For Clients who want to go deeper on the human side of money decisions, our designations also include the Certified Financial Behavior Specialist® (FBS®), an Occidental specialty that brings a financial psychology lens to the work.
5 Questions Every Long-Tenured Lockheed Martin Employee Should Answer
Use this quick checklist to see where you stand and where a clearer plan could help.
1: Do You Know Your Pension Options?
If you have a frozen salaried benefit, do you have a current estimate, and do you understand the lump-sum versus monthly-payment decision?
2: Do You Know How Much Company Stock You Hold?
Is that concentration intentional, or did it build quietly over the years?
3: Are You Using the Full CAP?
Are you capturing both the automatic company contribution and the match, and do you know whether after-tax Roth contributions are available to you?
4: Have You Mapped the Income Sequence?
Do you know the order in which you'll draw from your pension, CAP, and Social Security, and how that sequence affects your tax bill across a 20- or 30-year retirement?
5: Are All the Pieces Talking to Each Other?
Are your pension, CAP, deferred compensation, Social Security, and, if applicable, military benefits part of one integrated plan, or are they managed in separate conversations?
You Earned This Retirement. Let's Make Sure It Holds Up.
The benefits are in place. The decisions are ahead. Let's build a retirement plan designed to be as precise as the work that got you here.
FAQs
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The salaried pension closed to new participants in 2006 and was frozen in two steps: Pay used in the benefit formula froze in January 2016, and credited service froze in January 2020. Many long-tenured employees still hold meaningful frozen benefits. Service continues to count toward vesting, early retirement eligibility, and retiree medical eligibility. Your plan documents and the Lockheed Martin Employee Service Center are the authoritative sources for your specific benefit.
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There is no universal answer. A lump sum offers control and flexibility but shifts longevity and market risk to you. Monthly payments offer a steady lifetime income but typically without inflation adjustment. The right choice depends on your health, other assets, tax situation, and goals. We model both paths with your full financial picture in view to help you make a confident decision.
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There is no single threshold, but holding your employer's stock in a retirement account means a significant portion of your financial picture is tied to one company. Diversifying has tradeoffs, including potential taxes on appreciated shares. We help Clients measure their concentration and weigh the options before acting.
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Yes. We work with Clients who hold military pensions, Thrift Savings Plan accounts, and VA benefits alongside their Lockheed Martin benefits, and James Griffin, MBA, CFP®,works with military officers as a regular part of his practice. Coordinating the two systems is a central part of how we plan for this audience.
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Occidental Asset Management is a fee-only Registered Investment Advisor. We are compensated directly by our Clients, not by commissions or product sales. We also serve as fiduciaries, which means we are legally and ethically required to act in your best interest. For Lockheed Martin employees navigating a one-time pension election or a deferred compensation decision, that distinction can matter.
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No. We meet with Clients virtually across the country. Many of our Lockheed Martin relationships are conducted entirely by video and phone. We invite you to schedule a complimentary call here.