If your defined pension plan was recently converted and you have been working for many years for the same company, this can result in a decrease in the benefit you will have at the end of your retirement. This is because traditional pension plans had defined payouts that were calculated based on the number of years of service and the last few years of earnings at the company; cash balance plans are based entirely on contributions and a defined interest percentage. It is typical to see a 15% decrease in plan benefit for long-time employees whose plans were converted from a traditional pension to a cash balance plan. However, newer employees who have many years remaining to earn funds in their cash balance plan will not experience a decrease in expected benefit, since the contributions to their plan will have time to grow through the years and a target benefit is set at their initial onboarding to the plan.