The option you select when you retire will affect the amount of the monthly benefit you will receive. In addition, when you make this election, it can never be changed, even if you should divorce and remarry.

There are different requirements depending on your age and number of credited years. 

You are eligible for a normal retirement benefit if you: (a) retire while you are an Active Participant; and (b) are at least 65 years old or, you reach the fifth anniversary of the date upon which you commenced participation, whichever is later. Payment of any benefits to which you are entitled will begin after you actually retire from covered or non-covered employment in the industry.

You are eligible for an early reduced retirement benefit if you retire while you are an Active Participant, are at least 55 years old (but less than 65 years old) and have earned at least ten credit years. If you retire while you are an Active Participant, are at least age 62, but not age 65 and have earned at least three vesting or credited years you can also receive an unreduced early retirement benefit. If you became an Active Participant on or after May 1, 2007, the early retirement requirements change. To be eligible for early retirement you must reach age 55 and have sufficient Years of Credited Service so that the sum of your age and Years of Credited Service totals at least 85 (also known as “index 85”). If you became an Active Participant before May 1, 2007, you will be eligible for early retirement when the sum of your age and Years of Credited Service totals 85. You will be eligible for a reduced early retirement benefit if you have accrued 10 or more Years of Credited Service and reached the age of 55 (but not the age of 62), or if you have met the applicable index 80 or 85 requirements and reached the age of 55.

If you are not an Active Participant at the time of your retirement, but are at least partially vested, then you are eligible to receive a vested deferred benefit, at the earliest retirement age you could have retired under the terms of the Plan in effect when you ceased being an Active Participant. 

Disability benefits are considered as “ancillary” benefits, rather than actual Pension benefits. You are eligible for a monthly disability retirement benefit if you become totally and permanently unable to perform any type of work (other than work the Trustees find to be rehabilitative in nature). To be eligible, you must have become totally and permanently disabled while you were an Active Participant, you must be less than 62 years old, and you must have earned at least five credit years. Participants who entered pay status on or after August 1, 2013 must obtain an award for Social Security disability benefits from the Social Security Administration to be eligible for disability benefits from the Plan.

It's also important to understand the vesting schedule. It takes 7 years to become 100% vested in the Carpenters Pension Plan. You will loose 20% per year if you elect to retire before you are 100% vested.

Your accrued benefit is 1% of the credited employer contributions received on your behalf as a result of the work performed by you as off May 1, 2007.  If you were a participant of the Fund prior to May 1, 2007, please contact the Fund office and request accrual information as multiple formulas may have been in place during your career.

Yes. There is a Death benefit paid to eligible beneficiaries if you are vested in the Plan. The kind of death benefits that are payable from the Plan and the beneficiary who can receive them could vary, depending upon whether or not you are married, the number of vesting years you have accrued, and whether or not you are eligible to receive normal or early retirement benefits at the time of your death.

Married Participants - Active 

1. Vested Participants - For deaths that occur on or after August 1, 2013, surviving spouses of Active vested Participants who die prior to retirement will only be entitled to a survivor annuity equal to 50% of the joint and survivor annuity that the Participants could have received at his earliest retirement with such annuity commencing at the Participant’s earliest retirement date.

2. Non-Vested Participants – Death benefits will not be paid on behalf of non-vested Active Participants who die on or after August 1, 2013.

Single Participants - Active

No pre-retirement death benefits will be payable to unmarried Active Participants who die on or after August 1, 2013.