Understand your member benefit statement
Your Member Benefit Statement is a vital tool for retirement planning. Learn more with this guide.
Limited members
Limited members are former spouses of plan members who are entitled to a portion of their pension benefits, and have applied to the plan to receive a benefit entitlement following a separation or divorce.
If you’re a limited member of the plan with your own Person ID number, you will receive your own Member Benefit Statement.
The corporation generates your limited member statement by removing your former spouse’s identifying information. The rest of the information is the same information your former spouse receives.
Your annual Member benefit statement shows your information in several sections.
Your personal information
This includes:
- Your name
- Your Person ID number
- Your date of birth
- The date you began contributing to your pension
- If you have a spouse, your spouse’s name and date of birth
You can review your personal information by signing in to My Account.
Your beneficiary
This shows the beneficiaries you have named for a pension benefit if you die before you retire. If you have a spouse, your spouse is automatically your beneficiary unless they sign a waiver.
You can update your beneficiary by signing in to My Account.
How to read the pension estimates in your statement
There are three things to know about the pension estimates in your statement:
- Service and salary information is based on everything your former spouse has earned or accrued up to March 31 (the plan’s fiscal year end)
- Pension amounts are based on the assumption your former spouse will work at their current rate of service and salary until they retire
- The earliest unreduced pension you see listed quotes the date and age when your former spouse is eligible for an unreduced pension
This section also shows estimates of your lifetime monthly pension if your former spouse stopped working last March 31 for a plan employer, left their contributions in the plan and retired on one of the dates listed.
Your former spouse’s pensionable earnings and service
This section shows the following information for the last fiscal year ending March 31:
- Your former spouse’s pensionable earnings
- Your former spouse’s pensionable service (actual time worked)
- Your former spouse’s contributory service (the number of months they and their employer contributed to the plan)
Your former spouse’s contributions
This shows the amount your former spouse has contributed:
- Over the plan’s fiscal year to March 31
- Since they began contributing to the plan
Your former spouse’s contributions do not reflect the value of your pension. The value of your lifetime monthly pension is based on:
- Your former spouse’s pensionable service
- The average of their five highest years of salary (not necessarily the last five years)
You can request an estimate for your share of the pension on the first day of the month following the date on which your former spouse reaches their earliest retirement age. You’ll find that date on your Member Benefit Statement under “Your estimated monthly pension benefit.”