Other Facts You Should Know

If You Return to Service (Retirees Only)

If you return to work after you have started to receive retirement benefits, and if you are considered an active member of the Plan, then your benefits will stop until you retire.

Exception: If you have passed the April 1st following the calendar year you reach the age  70 1/2, benefits will not cease.

Upon retiring again, the amount of benefit shall be recalculated to include any additional accruals.

No Benefits for Duplicate Period of Service

No retirement benefit shall be paid to any person from this Plan for any period of employment concerning which retirement benefits are paid from another plan (except for Social Security and Worker’s compensation benefits).

Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO)

Payment of benefits shall be made to an alternate payee with respect to a Member pursuant to a “qualified domestic relations order” and shall not be treated as an assignment or alienation of benefits. A “domestic relations order” is a judgment, a decree or order (including approval of a property) settlement agreement, that (a) relates to the provisions of child support, alimony payments, or marital property rights to a spouse, former spouse, child or other dependent of a Member, and (b) is made pursuant to domestic relations law (including a community property law). A domestic relations order is a “qualified domestic relations order” if it creates or recognizes the existence of an alternate payee’s right to (or assigns to an alternate payee the right to) receive all or a portion of the benefits payable to a Member under the Plan, specifies required information, and does not alter the amount or form of Plan benefits.

An “alternate payee” is a spouse, former spouse, child or other dependent of a Member who is recognized by a domestic relations order as having the right to receive all, or a portion of, the benefits under a Plan with respect to the Member.

A QDRO can require benefits to be paid to an alternate payee at a time when benefits are not payable to the Member because the Member has not retired or separated from service. In the case of any payment before a Member has separated from service, a domestic relations order may provide that payments must begin to the alternate payee on or after the date on which the Member attains (or would have attained) the earliest retirement age under the Plan. If the Member dies before the Early Retirement Date, the alternate payee is entitled to benefits only if the QDRO required survivor benefits to be paid.

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