Marriage Breakdown

What happens to my pension if there is a Marriage Breakdown?

Required Documentation

Upon relationship breakdown, you should contact the Plan Administrator. You must provide a Separation Agreement or Order that affects the payment or distribution of your benefits, or pension entitlements. The Plan Administrator shall, subject to applicable legislation and enforceable Court Orders, pay to your Spouse the value of the portion of your lifetime pension granted to your Spouse in the Separation Agreement or Order.

Active and Inactive Plan Members

The value of the portion of pension entitlement granted to your Spouse cannot be more than 50% of your total lifetime benefit earned during the period of joint accrual. The value shall be calculated as if you had terminated your membership on the date mentioned in the Order as being the end of the joint accrual of the benefit. Your Spouse must transfer the value of his/her portion to a LIRA which meets the specifications required by the Employment Pension Plans Act. However, If you are age 55 or over at the date of your relationship breakdown, your Spouse may elect to delay the division and transfer of her share until you retire, terminate, or upon your death.

Retired Plan Members

If the Separation Agreement or Order is received by the Plan Administrator after you have received the first pension payment from the Plan, then your Spouse’s portion of your benefits, or pension entitlements, shall be paid to her as a single life pension, or subject to the discretion of the Board of Trustees, the value can be transferred to a LIRA.

Deceased Plan Members

In the event that the Separation Agreement or Order shall be received by the Plan Administrator, or become effective after your death, the value of the portion of your benefits, or pension entitlements granted to your Spouse shall be that portion of the death benefit payable to your Estate. Your Spouse must transfer the value of her portion of your benefits, or pension entitlements to a LIRA.

What is the definition of Spouse?

"Spouse" is a person who has rights to your pension in accordance with pension legislation and who, at the relative time, is;

a) someone that you are married to and to whom you have not been living separate and apart for 3 or more consecutive years, or

b) if there is no person to whom subsection (a) applies, someone you have been living with in a conjugal (common-law) relationship;

i. for a continuous period of at least 3 years, or

ii. of some permanence, if there is a child of the relationship by birth or adoption.

Do pension benefits have to be divided on a marriage breakdown?
The division of pension benefits is not mandatory. The couple may prefer, or the courts may order, a division of family property in such manner that the member's or former member's pension benefits remain intact. However, a calculation of commuted value may still be required in order to fairly divide other property.

Alberta Sheet Metal Workers’ Retirement Trust Fund

Alberta Sheet Metal Workers’ Retirement Trust Fund

Marriage Breakdown

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