PENSION PLAN DEATH BENEFITS
Pre-Retirement Pension Plan Death Benefits for an Active Participant
Non-Spouse Preretirement Benefit
(No surviving spouse or married less than a year)
Death Benefit Payable to Beneficiary
If you are Vested and die before your Pension Effective Date without a Qualified Spouse, your Designated Beneficiary will be entitled to a Non-Spouse Preretirement Lump Sum Death Benefit in the amount of $10,000. Your Designated Beneficiary will receive this benefit only if:
- You had at least 1,000 hours in Covered Employment in the 12-month period immediately preceding your date of death; or
- You failed to work at least 1,000 hours in Covered Employment during such 12-month period but maintained Emergency Continuation of Eligibility under the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters’ Health Fund due to Total and Permanent Disability or Workers’ Compensation Injury; or
- You died while performing qualified military service and would have satisfied either subparagraph no. 1 or no. 2 had you died immediately prior to entering qualified military service.
Spousal Preretirement Benefit
(Death prior to Normal Retirement Age)
Death Benefit Payable to Spouse
Qualified Preretirement Surviving Spouse Pension
If you are Vested, die before your Pension Effective Date, and have been married at least one year prior to your date of death, your surviving spouse will receive a lifetime monthly benefit. The amount of your surviving spouse’s benefit will be 50% of what your monthly pension would have been in the form of a Qualified Joint and Surviving Spouse Pension, after adjustment for early retirement, if applicable. In addition, if you earned a pension benefit under the VPP, the portion of the Qualified Preretirement Surviving Spouse Annuity attributable to the VPP will adjust as described in the Pension Fund SPD.
The Qualified Preretirement Surviving Spouse Pension is payable to your surviving spouse on the first day of the month following your death. However, your surviving spouse may elect in writing to delay payments until a future date but not after the calendar month in which you would have reached age 70 ½ had you survived.
A QDRO may instruct the Pension Plan to treat your former spouse as your surviving spouse for purposes of all or a portion of the Preretirement Surviving Spouse Pension if you divorce after being married for at least one (1) year.
Spousal Preretirement Lump Sum Death Benefit
If you are Vested, die before your Pension Effective Date, and are married to a Qualified Spouse, your surviving spouse will receive, in addition the Qualified Preretirement Surviving Spouse Pension, a Spousal Preretirement Lump Sum Death Benefit in the amount of $10,000. Your spouse will receive this benefit only if:
- You had at least 1,000 hours in Covered Employment in the 12-month period immediately preceding your date of death; or
- You failed to work at least 1,000 hours in Covered Employment during such 12-month period but maintained Emergency Continuation of Eligibility under the Mid-Atlantic Carpenters’ Health Fund due to Total and Permanent Disability or Workers’ Compensation Injury; or
- You died while performing qualified military service and would have satisfied either subparagraph no. 1 or no. 2 had you died immediately prior to entering qualified military service.
Post-Retirement Pension Plan Death Benefits
If you pass away in or after the first month for which your pension is payable, your death benefits depend on the form of payment that you selected at retirement.
Key Terms and Definitions
The pension benefit you have earned that is payable at Normal Retirement Age as adjusted based on the provisions of the Plan.
You become an "active" participant of the Pension Plan the first day of the Plan year within which you are credited with 350 Hours of Service.
Once you meet the initial eligibility requirement, your eligibility will continue as long as you remain an Eligible Employee and obtain at least 250 hours in each Plan Year.
The eligibility requirement is based on all hours which are credited for vesting purposes under the Plan.
A person designated by the Participant who is or may become entitled to a benefit from the Plan.
Break-In-Service occurs in any Plan Year during which you fail to earn at least 250 Hours of Service.
Contributions, or Total Employer Contributions, means the money paid or payable into the Trust Fund by an Employer pursuant to a Collective Bargaining Agreement. Benefit Contributions and Special Funding Contributions comprise Total Employer Contributions. Benefit Contributions are the portion of Total Employer Contributions payable under a Collective Bargaining Agreement that are not Special Funding Contributions and constitute the portion of Total Employer Contributions used to calculate the monthly amount of a Participant’s Accrued Benefit (benefit-bearing contributions). Special Funding Contributions are non-benefit bearing contributions.
Covered Employment means employment of an Employee by an Employer in a category covered by the Collective Bargaining Agreement and for which Contributions are required to be made to the Fund. It also means employment for which Contributions are transferred to the Fund pursuant to the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America International Reciprocal Agreement for Carpenters’ Pension Funds, or other reciprocal agreements recognized by the Trustees.
If you are Deferred Vested Participant, you may retire with a Deferred Vested Pension upon:
- Attaining age 62; and
- Completing at least five (5) Years of Vesting Service.
The Deferred Vested Pension is the only pension benefit available to Deferred Vested Participants. A
Deferred Vested Participant is not eligible for an Early Retirement Pension, an Unreduced Future Service Pension, or any other type of early retirement pension benefit.
- You become a Deferred Vested Participant if you fail to earn 250 Hours of Service in a Plan Year. Deferred Vested status is effective beginning the first day of the Plan Year following the Plan Year in which you fail to earn 250 Hours of Service. For example, if you failed to earn 250 Hours of Service from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022, you will become a Deferred Vested Participant on January 1, 2023.
- You may regain active status by earning 1,000 Hours of Service in a Plan Year. Active status shall take effect beginning the first day of the Plan Year following the Plan Year in which you work 1,000 or more Hours of Service. For example, if you are Deferred Vested beginning January 1, 2022, but you work 1,000 Hours from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022, you will be considered an active Participant effective January 1, 2023.
If you are eligible for and elect to receive a Deferred Vested Pension, the amount of your pension will be calculated in the same manner as a Normal Retirement Pension, after which the amount of your benefit will be reduced by 0.5% for each month, if any, by which you are younger than Normal Retirement Age on your Pension Effective Date.
Your benefit may be reduced even further if you choose a form of payment that provides a survivor annuity to your spouse or Designated Beneficiary. Finally, if you earn a pension benefit under the VPP, it will continue to adjust into retirement, and, if a survivor annuity becomes payable to your spouse or Designated Beneficiary, the portion of the survivor annuity attributable to the VPP will continue to adjust as well.
The first day of the first period for which a benefit is payable to you as an annuity. Usually, it is the first of the month after you properly complete an application for benefits and means the first day you begin receiving pension benefits.
Each hour for which Contributions are required to be remitted to the Trust Fund on your behalf.
Legacy Pension means any benefit accrued by a Participant prior to the Variable Pension Plan effective date (January 1, 2020).
Normal Retirement Age means the later of age- 65 or the 5th anniversary of your participation in the Plan. However, if you are a former participant of the EDCC, your Normal Retirement Age for purposes of the benefit you earned through July 31, 2004 (the day before the effective date of the merger of the EDCC into this Plan) is the later of age 62 or the 5th anniversary of your participation under the Plan.
A Qualified Domestic Relations Order (Q.D.R.O.) is a judgment, decree, or order made pursuant to state domestic relations law that relates to a divorce or other domestic relations proceedings which specifies an amount of the Participant's benefit to be paid to an alternate payee, and the manner of such payment.
Payment to an alternate payee may be paid in any form permitted under the Plan.
Variable Pension means any benefit accrued on or after the VPP effective date (January 1, 2020).
When a Participant has a non-forfeitable right to receive a retirement benefit under the Pension Plan. A Participant with five (5) Years of Vesting Service is Vested.
Any calendar year during which you work at least 1,000 Hours in Covered Employment.