Changes to Your Personal Information
It is a good idea to keep LPF informed of any changes in your personal information. Login to our online service AccessLPF to update or correct your personal information or call the LPF Office.
To make corrections or changes to the following, please use our Change of Information Form – LPF Member and mail it to our office along with any applicable documents.
- Change of address
- Social insurance number (please provide proof)
- Last name (please provide proof)
- Marital status changes due to divorce, separation, new marriage, common-law relationship or death
Changing Your Beneficiary or Spouse
Naming a Beneficiary
It is important that you name a beneficiary to receive any survivor benefits that may be payable in the event of your death before retirement.
If at the time of your death you are not yet retired, and:
- You do not have a Spouse, or
- You were living separate and apart from your Spouse, or
- In Ontario, your Spouse has signed the Waiver of Pre-retirement Death Benefit and filed it with us
we will pay the death benefit to your designated beneficiary. If there is no beneficiary at the date of your death, we will pay the death benefit to your estate.
If you have a spouse, she/he is automatically entitled to the death benefit, unless the Waiver of Pre-retirement Death Benefit has been signed.
However, it is still a good idea to name a beneficiary to receive this benefit in the event that your spouse dies before you do – or in the event that you are separated from your spouse at the time of your death.
If you do not have an eligible spouse on the date of your death and have not named any designated beneficiaries, the pre-retirement death benefit will be paid to your estate.
Naming your minor child as a beneficiary
Under Ontario law, a child is considered a minor until the age of 18. You can designate your children as beneficiaries. However, LPF cannot pay a benefit directly to a minor and must pay the benefit to a trustee.
You can appoint any individual or organization as a trustee for your minor beneficiary using the Beneficiary Designation Form. The trustee will hold any LPF benefit in trust until the minor reaches 18 years of age.
If you do not designate a trustee, LPF will pay the benefit to the minor’s legal property guardian. If there is no guardian, then LPF will pay the benefit to the Accountant of the Superior Court of Justice.
You can change or update your beneficiary by completing and submitting the Beneficiary Designation Form. Each time you update your designated beneficiaries, the new designation replaces the previous one. Therefore, ensure your designation includes ALL primary and secondary beneficiaries you intend to potentially receive a benefit.
Marriage Breakdown
If you and your spouse are getting separated or divorced, the pension you have earned in the LPF, or in any other registered pension plan, during your marriage or common-law relationship, is considered to be a part of “family property” and may be divided between the spouses.
You may be required to include the value of any pension benefits you accumulated in the LPF Pension Plan during the period of your marriage or spousal relationship in your calculation of net family property. Although it is not mandatory to divide your pension, when you make arrangements to split your assets you may choose or need to pay a portion of your pension to your former spouse.
Please note that Marriage Breakdown Rules vary from province to province. On our website we provide the information pertaining to Ontario, which is the LPF’s province of registration.
If your court order, family arbitration award or a domestic contract, such as a separation agreement, was signed or executed on or before December 31, 2011, OR after January 1, 2012, please read the corresponding section of the Ontario Marriage Breakdown Rules.
When you have a separation agreement finalized or a court order, please forward a certified copy of any such signed agreement to the LPF Office.
Review your Beneficiary Information
Regardless of what marriage breakdown rules are applicable to your situation, as soon as you get separated or divorced you should review your designated beneficiary information.
Log on to AccessLPF to review your current beneficiaries and complete a Beneficiary Designation Form if any changes are required.
Breaks In Service
After no contributions are made on your behalf for 24 consecutive months you have a break in service. There are ways to prevent a break in service:
- You are entitled to WSIB credits, which reduce the period to less than 24 months. Read more
- You are employed under a Plan that has a signed reciprocal agreement with the LPF as described below.
Money Follows the Worker (Reciprocal Agreement)
If you are temporarily employed under the Laborers’ Western Plan, BC Labourers’ Plan, in Quebec or with the CCWU, you have the option to have your pension contributions transferred on a monthly basis to the LPF.
The Reciprocal Agreements between the LPF and the Western/BC Plans, the LPF and the CCQ and the LPF and the CCWU provides members who are working outside their home locals the option to have their pension contributions transferred between the LPF and the other respective plan, so that they keep accumulating pension without incurring a break in service. For additional information, refer to our pamphlet Money Follows the Worker (Reciprocal Agreement).
Workers’ Compensation
After January 1, 1990 if you are absent from work due to an injury you sustained while working with an Employer that is covered under a Collective Agreement, and if you are receiving benefits under an applicable provincial Workers’ Compensation arrangement, you may receive up to one Pension Credit during the time you receive Workers’ Compensation Benefits.
If you have/had a work-related injury and are receiving/received compensation benefits from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario login to AccessLPF to view the Workers’ Compensation Page and submit your claim number and written authorization form, or mail it to the LPF Office.
We must contact WSIB to obtain the necessary information and determine if you are entitled to receive additional pension hours.
If you are receiving/received compensation benefits from a province other than Ontario, please contact the LPF Office for more information.
Disability
If you are unable to work due to a disability, the LPF offers a Disability Pension.
In order to qualify, you must provide proof that you have been approved for a disability pension under the CPP or the QPP and forward it to our office along with a Pension Application.
Login to AccessLPF to complete and submit your application online or call the LPF Office for assistance.
Pension contributions must have been remitted on your behalf within the 24 consecutive months immediately before your disability retirement date, unless you are able to provide evidence that you were disabled and receiving disability benefits, such as long-term disability benefits from an insurance, government or agency. Self-payments are not considered pension contributions for this requirement.
If you are approved to receive a Disability Pension, you may be required, from time to time, to provide evidence that you continue to receive a disability pension under the CPP or the QPP or to be re-examined by a qualified physician.
Your Disability Pension from the LPF will immediately stop if you return to work and/or recover from your disability and cease to receive a disability pension from the CPP or QPP. You may then apply for an Early Retirement Pension, or another type of pension, depending on whether you qualify. You may re-apply for a Disability Pension, as long as you provide proof that your CPP/QPP Disability Pension has been reinstated or re-approved.
Shortened Life Expectancy
In the unfortunate event that you become terminally ill, you may be able to access your pension benefit through the LPF Shortened Life Expectancy provision. To qualify, you must have a life expectancy of 24 months or less, and your spouse must willingly waive his/her entitlement to the survivor benefit. If approved, you will receive the commuted value of your pension benefit as a lump sum cash payment less the applicable income tax or you can choose to transfer the commuted value of your pension benefit into an RRSP and avoid income tax deductions.
To apply for this benefit, please contact the LPF Office and speak to a Pension Benefits Analyst.
Death
Before Retirement
If you die before retirement, your surviving spouse is entitled to receive a death benefit equal to the commuted value of your pension. Your spouse may choose to have the death benefit paid in one of the following forms:
- A taxable lump sum payment of the commuted value; or
- A tax exempt transfer of the commuted value to a Registered Savings Plan (RSP); or
- A monthly lifetime pension, the actuarial value of which is equivalent to the commuted value.
If you do not have a surviving spouse, the benefit is payable as a taxable lump sum payment to your designated beneficiary or estate.
Prior to your death your spouse may waive the right to receive the pre-retirement death benefit by signing the Waiver of Pre-retirement Death Benefit form.
If we have a signed waiver on file, the death benefit would be payable to your beneficiaries or to your estate. Your spouse may revoke the waiver at any time before your death by delivering a written and signed notice of revocation to LPF. If the waiver is revoked, your spouse is again first in line for the death benefit, regardless of any other beneficiary you have designated.
Survivor Benefits are payable in this order of entitlement:
- Your eligible spouse is first in line for survivor benefits, unless spousal rights have been waived.
- If there is no eligible spouse, a pension will be paid to any designated beneficiary or executor/executrix designated in your Last Will & Testament.
- If there is no eligible spouse or designated beneficiary/executor, a person with supporting documents, such as a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee without a Will, may be entitled.
- If none of the above apply, the benefit may be paid to the your estate.
The value of the benefit is equal to 100% of the lump sum value of the member’s pension at the time of death.
After Retirement
If you die after retirement, the payment of survivor benefits depends on the form of pension payment you elected at retirement.