taking early pension vs. letting it wait

Is lump sum your only choice, or could you take regular monthly payouts? If the latter, are they indexed for inflation?

If you die, or get divorced after ten or more years of marriage, she will get SS based on your earnings record.

Presumably she owns some of your marital property, and is the heir or beneficiary of the rest, so she should be well provided for even without any spousal pension.

Yes, assuming you never contributed after-tax dollars. I am not aware of any way to avoid tax on this money, but of course it's better to have money and pay tax on it than not have it.

Protect it from what? Inflation? Lawsuits? Loss of capital due to poor investments? Taxes?

Ordinary stocks and bonds (capital assets), annuities, long term care insurance, gifts, college aid for descendants, tax-exempt bonds, rental or investment real estate -- any or all of these might be good places to park your money for the long haul. Or, perhaps your wife would like to start a business or income-producing hobby and could use some start-up cash?

-Mark Bole

A lump sum present value payour from a defined benefit plan should be eligable for a rollover to an IRA. If so, no taxes are due, and you have flexibility for withdrawals, and potential for my favorite tax planning strategy, the timed, paced Roth conversion.

The one risk and one warning is the transfer should be made into an IRA waiting to receive it, and done as a direct rollover. The check I received was made payable directly to my broker, "Charles Schwab for futher deposit into the acccount of JoeTaxpayer". This way, there is no risk of running afoul of any rollover rules, and having the money become fully taxable. Of course, you then need to decide how to actually invest these funds, but that was not the OP's question, so i won't go there.

JOE