What death benefits
are available for your
survivors after retirement?

The OPSEU Pension Plan provides benefits for your survivors, whether you die before or after your pension begins. The entitlements for survivors, if death occurs after retirement, are outlined below.

Who gets a survivor benefit?

For death after retirement, benefits normally flow as follows:

*If you are receiving an OPTrust pension and die before age 65, your spouse or eligible child receives a survivor pension based on 60% of the pension you were receiving at the time of death. The survivor pension is re-calculated to 60% of your CPP-integrated pension on what you would have been your 65th birthday.

For the eligible spouse
If your spouse qualifies as "eligible" and was not living separate and apart from you when you ended your membership in the Plan and when your pension began, he or she may be entitled to 60% of your pension at no additional cost to you.

For eligible children
If your children are "eligible", and are the recipients of the survivor benefit, they will share 60% of your pension.

Survivor benefits are payable to an eligible child only if there is no eligible spouse or if the eligible spouse has waived the survivor pension.

Residual balance and payment recipient
If you die after your pension payments have started, a residual balance may be payable. Your adult children, friends or other family members can be named as payment recipients, in case there is a residual balance payment. We only calculate the residual balance when there are no more survivors, i.e. eligible spouse or eligible children.

To determine if there is any residual balance OPTrust calculates the difference between your contributions plus interest at retirement, minus all the pension payments made to you and your survivors. If your contributions and interest exceed the pension payments this is the residual balance and we will refund it to your payment recipient. You can name a payment recipient using the Identifying Benefit Recipients (Retirement)  form. If you have not named a payment recipient, any residual balance is paid to your estate.
 

Residual balance calculation

a - b = c
a = your contributions to Plan, plus interest to your retirement date
minus
b = pension paid to you + survivor benefits paid
c = residual balance