Thread regarding Northwestern Mutual layoffs

The continued investment in NY at the current price tag has little to do with LearnVest. The NY space was leased well after LV ceased to exist. Now it’s viewed as a way to tap into the largest hub of fintech talent. Since NM isn’t exactly a remote friendly company, you can see why it will continue to exist for some time.

LearnVest was a dud? You don't say. It was a damn wrapper around Mint that tried to do lead generation.

Add to that all the $$ spent on the underwhelming Tower/Commons filled with wasted space that no one wants to be in...

The cost of the office in New York, which only exists because of the LV acquisition, is over 500 million just on its own. They spent half a billion on 3 floors of a downtown manhattan office space they renovated for a few hundred employees. They were very open on those numbers. For comparison, that's the same cost the entire commons and tower in downtown Milwaukee cost.

The cost far exceeds 1 billion when you take that $500 million and also include the cost of the acquisition, the cost of infrastructure (only Franklin and MKE before acquisition), the cost of the entire PX org for 8 years to develop a replacement for PPA, and the utter lack of return from the acquisition (from what i've heard NM got screwed because LearnVest was a real dud and we only really got some mediocre AWS infrastructure out of it and some talent, of which most have left since the original acquisition).

1B into learnvest? Not even close, and they literally just announced PPA is going away in a month… so goal accomplished. It took longer than it should have but given how dysfunctional this company is at everything, it’s actually impressive they got to the finish line.

The limits you cite regarding 401(k) contributions are the elective deferral limits. Not the match. Northwestern Mutual did once match those contributions with limits based on compensation.

The cash balance plan has a limit of $245,000 for 2022. While still quite a bit of money, it is not even close to the $1.82 million you claim.

The cash balance plan was offered up as a replacement for the original pension plan. It provided NM with less risk as well as a lower cost. And yes, it provides a lower benefit amount for the employees.

It is clear from that change as well as the elimination of the match for the 401(k) that NM is no longer looking to be ‘Mother Mutual’ and take care of their employees for life. They want people to move on quickly.

It is a very different approach. Is it the right approach? We may not know for a long time.

Someone needs to educate themselves on defined contribution plans. Limit is closer to a quarter mil.
https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-defined-benefit-plan-benefit-limits

1b into learnvest is a little steep no? A lot of people would have to be fairly rotten for this to be true, enriching themselves at the cost of most employees.