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From: Ringrose, McKinley, Gordienko
Category: Category 1
Date: 19 Dec 2000
Time: 01:17:18
Remote Name: 207.230.251.82
Pension Update #2
December 12, 2000
In the last Pension Bulletin we informed you of the $3.00 increase to the basic pension, raising the rate to $52.00 from the current $49.00 per month per year of service. Beginning January 1, 2001, there will be a further change to the Pension Options you must select upon retirement.
When a member goes to retire now, they must select an option on how they will receive their pension. The six options are:
„h Straight Lift (Pays maximum amount to pensioner for life only); „h Five, Ten, Fifteen Year Minimum Guarantee (At declining rates, pays for life of pensioner and upon death pays to the estate the balance of the guarantee selected from date of retirement); or „h Joint and Survivor with a choice of 60% or 100% (Upon death of pensioner pays to surviving spouse either 60% or 100% of pension value for life).
Except for the Straight Life all these options have the potential of making your pension much more valuable, as they may pay out longer so each option cost you a reduction form the maximum pension.
Effective January 1, 2001 the Ten Year Minimum Guarantee will now be the standard from of pension of $1,820 (35 years [maximum] X $52) instead of the Straight Life. What this does is lift all the rates for all the options by a substantial amount (6.6%). The Five-Year Minimum Guarantee and the Straight Life will both pay an amount greater than $1820 and all other options will increase proportionately.
What this means in real term is that all members retiring from January 1, 2001 forward, will have a substantial increase in benefit when they select the best option for their situation. While this may be confusing at first, we think it will be very helpful to all retiring members of marking their Option Selection easier.
If you have any questions please contact one of your Trustees and we will explain it to you. On the back of this page we have included some examples to show you how to calculate your pension with these changes. Remember these are only approximate and the Pension Officer will calculate your correct pension.
Brian Ringrose, Local 502 James McKinley, Local 500 Mark Gordienko, ILWU Canada
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