Severance & Annuity

What You Need to Know

The Pension Plan and the Severance and Annuity Fund work together to provide stability and security for you when you retire. Your pension ensures that you have a reliable, minimum income. Your account in the Severance and Annuity Fund is designed to protect you from inflation, allowing your balance to increase and decrease over time alongside the economy.

Eligibility

You’re eligible to participate in the Severance and Annuity Fund when your contributing employers have contributed $2,500 to the Fund for your work in the longshore industry.

How the Severance and Annuity Fund Works

Your employer agreed, in a collective bargaining agreement, to contribute to the Severance and Annuity Fund for each hour you work. The Fund invests those contributions in the market for you to use when you retire.

You or your beneficiary can receive a distribution from your account under any of the following conditions:

• You reach age 62 and are retired, or you begin receiving a pension from the STA-ILA Pension Plan.
• Your employment from a contributing employer is terminated for a period of six or more consecutive months.
• You die.

You may request an in-service distribution of all or part of your accumulated share in a lump-sum payment if you are at least 65 years old and it is before April 1 of the calendar year in which you attain age 70½.

Vesting

You’re vested in your account as soon as you begin participating in the Severance and Annuity Fund. That means you have a non-forfeitable right to the money in your account.

Resources

Severance and Annuity SPD [PDF]
Summary Annual Report–S&A Plan [PDF]
Forms
Contacts