Leaving AbbVie Inc., by choice, after a layoff or into retirement, brings several money decisions at once: what to do with your 401(k), when to claim Social Security, and, if you earned a pension at any employer, how to take it. Each choice affects the others, and a few of them cannot be undone once you sign. Below are the questions to work through, the 2026 rules behind them, and, near the end, what public filings show about the retirement plans at AbbVie Inc..

What Should You Sort Out Before You Leave AbbVie Inc.?

• Whether to leave your 401(k) where it is, move it to a new employer's plan, or roll it into an IRA
• How much income you need each month, and which accounts or benefits will supply it
• When to claim Social Security, and how that choice affects a spouse
• How to take any pension you have earned, and how much survivor income your spouse would want
• How to pay for health coverage until Medicare starts at 65

How Should You Plan Your Cash Flow After Leaving?

Start with a written monthly budget: housing, utilities, insurance, food, debt payments and taxes on one side, and severance, any pension, Social Security, part-time pay and planned withdrawals on the other. The gap between the two tells you how much your savings need to cover, and for how long. If you are between jobs rather than retiring, the same exercise shows how long severance and savings can carry a job search before you need to draw on retirement money. Health coverage belongs in that budget: COBRA generally lets you stay on a former employer's group health plan for up to 18 months after leaving, but the plan can charge you up to 102% of the full premium.

What Are Your Choices for Your 401(k)?

You can generally leave the money in the plan, move it to a new employer's plan, roll it into an IRA, or cash it out. A direct rollover moves the money with no federal income tax withholding, while a check paid to you has 20% withheld and gives you 60 days to redeposit the full amount, including the withheld 20%, to keep it tax-deferred. If you leave in or after the year you turn 55, withdrawals from that employer's 401(k) itself are exempt from the 10% early-withdrawal tax, but the exception does not carry over to an IRA. Cashing out is taxed as ordinary income and generally adds the 10% tax if you are under 59 1/2 and no exception applies. If you take a new job, 2026 lets you defer up to $24,500 into its 401(k), plus $8,000 at 50 or older, or $11,250 instead if you turn 60, 61, 62 or 63 during the year. Starting in 2026, if your prior-year wages from that employer topped $150,000, any catch-up contribution has to go in as a Roth, after-tax contribution.

When Should You Claim Social Security?

You can start Social Security retirement benefits as early as 62, but claiming before full retirement age permanently lowers the monthly amount; for anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67, and starting at 62 cuts the benefit by about 30%. Each year you wait past full retirement age, up to 70, raises the benefit by 8%. If you claim before full retirement age and keep working, the 2026 earnings test holds back $1 of benefits for every $2 you earn above $24,480, or $1 for every $3 above $65,160 in the year you reach full retirement age. Benefits rose 2.8% for 2026 under the annual cost-of-living adjustment. For married couples, the higher earner's claiming age also shapes the survivor benefit, which can be as much as 100% of the deceased worker's benefit when the survivor claims at full retirement age.

How Should You Take a Pension?

If you have a traditional pension from any employer, the main choice is usually between a monthly annuity for life and, if the plan offers one, a lump sum. Federal law makes a joint and survivor annuity the default form of payment for married participants, and choosing a single-life annuity or a lump sum instead generally requires your spouse's written consent, witnessed by a notary or a plan representative. A pension lump sum is generally eligible to be rolled into an IRA to keep it tax-deferred, while monthly annuity payments for life cannot be rolled over. An annuity leaves investment and longevity risk with the plan, while a lump sum moves both to you, so compare the two using the plan's own figures before you elect.

How Do These Choices Fit Together?

The order you draw from your accounts affects your taxes. Some retirees live on 401(k) withdrawals for a few years so they can delay Social Security and start a larger check later, while others claim earlier to leave savings invested; neither approach fits everyone. Up to 85% of your Social Security benefits can become taxable once your combined income passes federal thresholds, so a large 401(k) withdrawal in the same year can make more of your benefit taxable. Required minimum distributions from a 401(k) or traditional IRA generally start at 73 if you were born in 1951 through 1959, or at 75 if you were born in 1960 or later.

How Does AbbVie's 401(k) Work When You Leave?

How much of that gap your own savings can close depends on the specific match and payout rules at AbbVie. The AbbVie Savings Plan matches employees hired in 2022 or later dollar for dollar up to 6% of pay, while earlier hires got a board-set match of 5% of pay for 2025 if they contributed at least 2%. The match vests on a two-year cliff, while a separate ASP+ contribution for post-2022 hires vests gradually through five years. At termination, loans up to the lesser of $50,000 or half the vested balance come due, and the account pays out as a lump sum, installments or rollover. Check which formula and schedule match your hire date.

Is There a Pension or Retiree Health Plan at AbbVie?

A 2022 plan description shows the AbbVie Pension Plan closed to anyone not already a participant by December 31, 2021, though earlier participants keep accruing benefits, reflected in $264 million of 2025 pension service cost in AbbVie's 10-K. That description pays 1.10% of final average pay times years of benefit service earned after 2003, with a lump sum only if the benefit's value is $25,000 or less at termination; above that, the plan pays an annuity only. AbbVie's Retiree Welfare Benefits Plan, formerly the Retiree Health Care Plan, reported 5,172 participants for plan year 2025, up from 4,747 the prior year. AbbVie's 10-K describes no single severance plan; it recorded restructuring charges, mostly severance, of $282 million in 2025. Compare your pension start date and severance terms against these rules before deciding when to leave.