"Your Pension Resources”
After almost a year of preparation, Total Compensation Package (TCP) 1 members will have two new resources to access their Defined Benefit Pension Plan information as of Monday (September 24): the interactive “Your Pension Resources” (YPR) Web site and the telephone-based Pension Center.
Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS) is scheduled to mail a notification letter to TCP1 members’ home address that will include a temporary personal identification number (PIN) to access the YPR site.
“Once the YPR Web site goes live next Monday, September 24, the site’s user-friendly ‘pension estimator’ tool will allow employees to calculate a variety of estimates based on different pension strategies and data,” said Kenny Leivo of Benefits (HR-B), retirement plans administrator.
The benefit estimator is preloaded with personalized up-to-date service and salary information, and employees only need to supply a proposed retirement date, salary increase estimate, and contingent annuitant data. The estimator provides results at two levels of detail and can keep track of and compare multiple estimates with different assumptions. Estimates can be saved on the site for future review and comparison. Members also can view general information about the Defined Benefit Pension Plan on the site and download related forms.
The YPR Web site will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. TCP1 members can speak with Pension Center representatives Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. The toll-free number is 1-866-370-7301.
TCP1 members nearing retirement are advised to contact the Pension Center as early as possible to initiate their pension process. Employees also can contact Benefits at 7-1806 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or by writing to benefits@lanl.gov by electronic mail.
“Employees should remember that while the LANS total compensation package is designed to be substantially equivalent in the aggregate to the University of California’s compensation package, the LANS TCP1 pension plan reflects changes required by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA),” Leivo explained. Therefore, the TCP1 pension plan is not identical to the University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP). Direct comparisons with University of California pension data will need to consider the ERISA requirements and the compensation packages as a whole, he said. In addition, individual pension differences can be caused by the specific pension options chosen and the age differences between individual retirees and their contingent annuitants.
Leivo pointed out that the LANS pension plan offers several advantages over the UCRP, such as allowing employees more flexibility in choosing retirement dates. LANS modified UCRP’s cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) requirements, for example, and removed penalties for choosing a pension date other than July 1. In addition, under LANS the highest-average plan compensation is adjusted on a pro-rata basis for inactive members who had at least an hour of service after June 28, 2007, no matter when these members elect to begin receiving their pensions. Under the UC retirement plan, adjustments to an inactive member’s highest-average plan compensation were made only once a year, effective July 1. Both LANS actions should reduce the annual retirement spike in July, Leivo noted.
With the addition of a 75 percent Joint and Contingent benefit option to the TCP1 plan beginning January 1, 2008, as required by the recently passed Pension Protection Act, TCP1 retirees will have even greater flexibility in selecting a suitable benefit payment amount. The pension estimator tool can calculate pension payments under this new 75 percent option for projected retirement dates on or after the January 1 start date.
Beginning Monday, September 24, check the YPR Web site or contact the Pension Center (1-866-370-7301).
Los Alamos’s own “Your Retirement Plans” Web site also provides useful information; employees also can download the summary plan description for the Defined Benefit Pension Plan.
For additional information, contact Leivo at 7-1346 or leivo@lanl.gov by electronic mail.
The YPR Web site and Phone Center are operated by Hewitt Associates for the Laboratory.
