You are automatically included in the Plan if you are an employee in a collective bargaining unit represented by Local Union No. 392 with an employer who makes contributions to the Pension Fund. You may be included if you are a non-bargaining unit employee covered by a participation agreement requiring employer contributions to the Plan.
Yes. You must sign a Universal Beneficiary Designation form which tells the Trustees whom you want to receive any death benefit and return of contributions that you may be entitled to under the Plan. If you are married, your beneficiary will be your spouse, unless your spouse consents in writing to the designation of another beneficiary. If you fail to designate a beneficiary in writing and file such a designation with the Trustees before your death, the Trustees will pay any death benefit to which you may be entitled to your estate or to any one of the persons listed in the following order of priority: (1) your surviving spouse; (2) your children; (3) your father; (4) your mother; (5) your grandchildren; (6) your brothers and sisters.
For credits earned on or after June 1, 2018, the Normal Retirement age is 65 provided you are vested under the Plan. You can retire at age 65 on an unreduced pension.
For credits earned on or before June 1, 2018, the Normal Retirement age is 62 provided you are vested under the Plan. You can retire at age 62 on an unreduced pension.
You can retire as early as age 55 if you have attained 10 or more years of Vesting Service. The amount of the Early Retirement Pension is equal to your accrued benefit with a reduction for each month that your benefit commencement date precedes age 62 or 65.
The Fund office must be notified prior to the first of the month in which you wish to retire. If the Fund office is not notified prior to the first of the month, retirement benefits may not begin until the first of the following month.
Yes, but please remember an appointment is necessary to insure all information needed to calculate your pension has been received. If you are married and choose a Single Life Annuity option, your spouse must also come into the Fund office with you.
The application for benefits cannot be completed until you have worked your last day. The Fund office must contact your employer to get your final work hours in order to complete your pension application. It is best that you contact the Fund office after your last day worked to set up an appointment.
A birth certificate for yourself and your spouse, if married; a marriage certificate and divorce decree if divorced.
See the Summary Plan Description and associated Summary of Material Modifications for more details.
Yes. Once each year, you will receive a statement showing what the Plan has recorded for your years of service, credited service, and earned monthly pension and death benefit credits through the last Plan year ending May 31. If you think that there is an error in the statement, you should report it to the Plan Administrator immediately.
You are eligible for a death benefit prior to retirement if you are an Active Participant and you are not eligible for the Qualified Pre-Retirement Survivor Annuity. Your beneficiary will receive monthly payments equal to your accrued benefit until the total payments equal your contributions.
For more details, please see Section 8.01 and Section 8.01 of the Pension Summary Plan Description and the associated Summary of Material Modifications.
If you elect any of the joint and survivor benefits and you and your surviving spouse die before total payments reach the guaranteed level, your beneficiary will continue to receive monthly payments until the total payments to you, your spouse and/or your beneficiary equal your contributions.
If you elect the single life annuity and die before reaching the guaranteed level, your beneficiary will receive monthly payments in the same amount until the total payments to you and your beneficiary equal your contributions.
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Yes. If you become totally and permanently disabled while a Plan participant, you may receive benefits from this Plan. If you have at least five years of service under the Plan, regardless of your age, and receive a disability pension under the federal Social Security laws, you will receive a disability pension under the Plan is 50% of the your accrued benefit.
Then your disability benefits under this Plan will also terminate. However, your pension benefits and years of service for vesting purposes will be reinstated. If you return to work, any additional Service Credits earned will be added to your totals at the time you first became disabled.
One Year Break in Service. If you have not attained Vested Status under the Plan, you will incur a one year break in service in any Plan Year in which contributions are not submitted on your behalf.
Permanent Break in Service. If you have not attained Vested Status under the Plan, you will incur a permanent break in service if you have 5 consecutive Plan Years in which contributions are not submitted on your behalf.
If you have five or more years of vesting service, you will be entitled to a pension.
The Trustees of the Plumbers, Pipe Fitters & Mechanical Equipment Service Local Union No. 392 Pension Fund have entered into reciprocal agreements with many other pension funds so that the contributions made on behalf of a traveler can be transferred monthly to the traveler’s home local pension fund. This enables the “money to follow the man” and maintains credit in the home local’s pension fund for the traveler. A traveler should determine whether or not his local union pension fund has executed a reciprocal agreement by checking with either his home local pension fund or with the Administrative Office of Local 392’s Pension Fund.