04/14/08 - Pension Estimator Launched!

The Trustees are pleased to provide you with this new interactive pension estimator. With the new estimator, you can estimate your pension benefits/balances on any future date to see how much you may receive, at retirement. This is an important tool to help you with your retirement planning.

To estimate your benefits balances, you will be asked to enter:

• Participant Date of Birth
• Spouse's Date of Birth (optional)
• Desired Month and Year of Retirement (OR Age at Retirement)
• Hourly 401(a) Contribution ($0 - $3)
• Estimated Annual Hours you will work each year until retirement
• Estimated Annual Investment Return for Individual Account Plan

Then, from a recent benefit statement, enter the following:

• Statement Date
• Accrued Retirement Plan Monthly Benefit
• Accrued Individual Account Balance
• Accrued Service Credits
• Year-To-Date Hours

Click on "Submit," and the pension estimator will provide you with an estimate of your projected retirement benefits/balances based on the assumptions and statement data you provided.

From the results page , you can also estimate the effect of using the pension enhancement option. You can either select an amount of your projected Individual Account Balance to convert to a monthly benefit, or you can select a desired amount to increase your projected monthly benefit, and the estimator will calculate how much of your Individual Account Balance it will take to buy the desired monthly amount.

You can run as many "what if" projections as you wish, at any time, to compare the effect that different retirement dates, different investment earnings rates, and different hours of estimated future work might have on your potential future benefits/balances.

Below the area showing your estimated benefit, all of the optional joint and survivor benefit forms will be displayed. This can help you for planning purposes in coordinating your retirement plans with your spouse's retirement plans.

The Trustees have developed this valuable tool to give you a greater understanding of your pension benefits and assist you in your retirement planning. However, the estimator does not constitute an official benefit statement; it provides a "what if?" estimate, only. Future pension accrual rates or other plan provisions may change and have an effect on your future benefits.

To try out the pension estimator, click here.