Schedule of Benefits

• Vesting Rules
• Normal/Early Retirement Options
• Benefit Options
• Surviving Spouse Benefits
• Death Benefit

Please note: In order to see the current benefit formula and calculate your benefits, please see the Benefit Calculator page.

A plan participant who accrues benefit under the Pension Plan only becomes entitled to receive that benefit if the plan participant is vested. If a plan participant last terminated covered employment after December 31, 1988, the plan participant will be vested if the plan participant had completed five years of vesting service without an intervening five-year break in service.

If you last terminated covered employment before January 1, 1989, please contact the WELS Benefit Plans Office for information regarding the applicable Pension Plan vesting rules.

To be eligible for a normal retirement benefit, a worker must be terminated from covered employment, vested, and apply for pension benefits. Normal retirement benefits can begin on or after a worker's 65th birthday.

Early retirement benefits are benefits to eligible workers who are terminated from covered employment and commence receipt of benefits prior to age 65 but after age 55. The amount of an early retirement benefit is calculated by reducing the normal retirement benefit amount by 0.5% for each month that benefit commencement precedes the worker's 65th birthday.

Eligible unmarried plan participants will receive a monthly annuity benefit for life (life annuity) at the time of application for pension benefits.

Eligible married plan participants may, at the time of application for pension benefits, elect to receive one of the four benefit options below:

Please note: Please see the Surviving Spouse Benefits section below for a further explanation of the Surviving Spouse options.

If a married plan participant is receiving his/her Pension Plan benefit in the form of a Surviving Spouse Benefit, the plan participant dies after payment of his/her Pension Plan benefit begins, and the plan participant's spouse survives the worker, the spouse will receive a Pension Plan benefit. This benefit will be a monthly benefit paid over the life of the spouse. The spouse's monthly survivor benefit would equal the percentage of the monthly benefit that would have been paid to the plan participant during his/her life had the plan participant elected to receive his/her Pension Plan benefit in a life annuity.

Example: If the plan participant chose the 67% Surviving Spouse Option, as indicated in the Benefit Options section above, at the time of application for Pension Plan benefits, the plan participant's spouse would be eligible to receive a monthly survivor benefit for life equal to 67% of the monthly benefit that the plan participant would have received if the plan participant had elected to receive his/her Pension Plan benefit in the form of a life annuity.

If a plan participant is married and dies before beginning to receive Pension Plan benefits, the plan participant's spouse will receive a monthly annuity for the spouse's life. Please contact the WELS Benefit Plans Office for more information on this pre-retirement survivor benefit.

The Pension Plan provides a lump sum Death Benefit payable to the spouse or estate of an eligible plan participant. To be eligible for the Death Benefit, the plan participant must be:

• Covered under the Plan and die while actively employed in covered employment; or,
• Disabled and die within one year of the date he/she terminates covered employment. The plan participant will be considered disabled if the Pension Commission, as the Plan Administrator, determines, in its sole discretion, that he/she has a physical or mental condition that prevents him/her from continuing to work in covered employment. In making its determination, the Pension Commission will consider such medical evidence that is satisfactory to the Pension Commission.

The amount of the benefit varies based upon the participant's age at the time of death. The following list details the benefit schedule: