Leaving Your Employer

The plan grants immediate vesting and locking in of benefits.

Vesting gives you the right to a pension.

Locking in prevents your pension from being “cashed out” so it will be available to you during retirement.

If your employment ends before age 55, you can choose one of the following:

• Leave your earned pension in the plan and begin to receive it from age 65.
• Leave your earned pension in the plan and begin to receive it at any time after age 55 (and before age 65) on a reduced basis.
• Transfer the value of the pension to another employer’s pension plan (if that plan accepts transfers).
• Transfer the value of the benefit to an approved retirement savings plan.

If you are 55 or older when your employment ends, you cannot transfer your earned pension out of the plan. Only your excess contributions, if any, will be available in cash (see Excess Contributions). You must choose one of the pension options below.

If you have less than 35 years of credited service, you can choose one of the following:

• Begin your pension immediately (or any time before age 65) with an early retirement reduction.
• Wait until you turn 65 and receive an unreduced pension.

If you have 35 or more years of credited service, you can choose one of the following:

• Begin your unreduced early pension immediately if you are already 60.
• Wait until you turn 60 to begin your unreduced early pension.
• Begin your pension immediately with an early retirement reduction if you are under age 60.

If you joined the plan before 1988 and have 40 or more years of credited service, you can begin your unreduced early pension immediately.

If you continue working past age 65, your pension will begin once you terminate employment. However, your pension must begin no later than December 1 of the year you turn age 71, even if you are still working.

You will not have the option to transfer your earned pension out of the plan. Only your excess contributions, if any, will be available in cash (see Excess Contributions).

When your benefit becomes payable (because you terminate employment, retire, or die before retirement), a calculation is performed to see whether the sum of your contributions with interest is more than 50% of the value of your pension credit. If so, the amount above 50% is called “excess contributions.”

If you terminate employment before retirement, your excess contributions may be dealt with in one of these ways:

• used to purchase a higher pension from the plan, if you are leaving your earned pension in the plan
• transferred, along with the lump sum value of the pension, out of the plan to another retirement savings plan
• refunded to you in cash, subject to withholding tax (where permitted under pension legislation)

If you die before retirement, your excess contributions will be paid to your beneficiary.