Make Sure Your Pension Starts On Time

If you are planning to retire soon, it’s important to remember that you need to give your employer at least 90 days’ notice. For example, in order for a pension to start on the desired date of Jan. 1, 2008, the Retirement Notice – which you sign and is submitted by your employer – would have to be received by HOOPP no later than Sept. 30, 2007.

Retirement countdown starts – Day 90

You can avoid delays in your processing by supplying your employer with copies of proof of age for yourself and your spouse, if you have one, to include with your Retirement Notice, if you haven’t already, as well as a copy of your marriage certificate and a void cheque. But your involvement doesn’t stop there.

Within a few days you get your retirement kit

Upon receiving your Retirement Notice from your employer, HOOPP will provide you with your personalized Retirement Kit. That kit includes a:

• Pension Elections Worksheet
• Pension Calculation Statement
• Pension Option Descriptions

Call in your elections – Day 62

Within four weeks of receiving your kit you need to call HOOPP with the decisions you have made, based on the package provided. This is when you decide if you will increase the pension your spouse will receive should you pass away before him or her, or name a beneficiary or beneficiaries if you are single.

By day 28 sign, date and return authorization

After we get your call, we’ll send you a Pension Election Confirmation Statement, this is for your records; and, a Pension Election Authorization form – this must be signed, dated and returned to HOOPP at least three weeks prior to your desired pension commencement date.

Now you can sit back and let those payments come in – for life!

What happens when less than 90 days’ notice is provided?

In order to guarantee your pension will start on the date you want, HOOPP asks that you provide 90 days’ notice to perform the four key steps of the process. If you don’t, your pension may start late. If your pension does start late, your first payment will include all payments owed from your requested start date.

Fall 2007