If you do not notify the Benefit Office in writing during the 30-day Special Enrollment Period, coverage for your dependent will begin when you notify the Benefit Office in writing that you have acquired a dependent from marriage, birth, adoption or placement for adoption. However, the coverage under the Plan will only be effective from the date the Benefit Office receives your written notification, NOT from the date of marriage, birth, adoption, or placement for adoption.
Your spouse must obtain single-person health care coverage if it is available through the their employer and they are a “full-time employee”.
If your spouse does not obtain the coverage when it is available from his/her employer, the coordination of benefits provisions of the Plan will apply as if your spouse had coverage from their employer. Lack of coverage by your spouse will result in a denial of most, if not all, of the their claim when it is submitted to the Plan for payment.
If you die with a vested benefit, but BEFORE you have received any monthly benefits from the Plan, your surviving spouse will receive a monthly payment for the rest of his/her life. The amount of the monthly payment will be the amount your spouse would have received under the “joint and survivor” benefit (with a 50 percent survivor feature) – that Is, one-half of the amount you would have received if you were receiving the joint & 50% survivor benefit when you died. Monthly payments to your surviving spouse will begin as of the first day of the months after you die if you were eligible for the early retirement benefit when you die. However, if you were not eligible for the early retirement benefit when you died but you were vested, the monthly payment to your surviving spouse will begin with the month following the month in which you would have become age 55 if you had not died. The benefit will then be paid to your surviving spouse for life. (if your spouse dies in the meantime, no death benefit will be paid.)
Even though your surviving spouse may be eligible for monthly payments for life—either beginning immediately or on a delayed basis—your surviving spouse may instead elect in writing to receive 60 monthly payments (5 Year Certain) of the benefit you had earned when you died, or 120 monthly payments (10 Year Certain) (reduced in amount so those payments have the same actuarial value as the 60 month payments). If your spouse elects to receive either 60 or 120 monthly payments (5 Year or 10 Year Certain), the value of the monthly payments for life that your spouse could have chosen will be reduced by the actuarial value of the 60 or 120 payments.
If you die with a vested benefit, but before you have received any monthly benefits from the Plan, and are not married, your beneficiary may elect to receive either 60 monthly payments of the benefit you had earned when you died, or 120 monthly payments (reduced in amount so those payments have the same actuarial value as the 60 monthly payments).
There are four types of benefits; Single Life Annuity, 50% Joint and Survivorship Annuity, 75% Joint and Survivorship Annuity, Single Lump-Sum Distribution, and Single Lump-Sum Rollover.
Note: A Participant may choose a combination of a partial rollover, partial distribution.