PENSION BENEFITS UPDATE
Holiday checklist: Check your
beneficiaries to your pension
During the past few months, our profession has
been besieged with line-of-duty deaths across the
country. It seems like now more than ever we are
losing members of our blue family at an alarming
rate. Since Nov. 1, we have lost 25 officers in the
line of duty with one from our own state. As many
of you know, the New Jersey State Police has had
a horrific year, losing two members this year and
one last December.
I want to express my condolences to those respective departments across the nation and the
New Jersey State Police, and extend my thoughts
and prayers to their families and friends. These fine officers were
taken from us way too early. With that said, I want to remind all
of you that, in an instant, life can change for all of us. We are not
immune to any of it, so I would like to say to all of you that, at some
point, please make sure your beneficiaries for your pensions are
current and up to date.
As the New Jersey State PBA pension coordinator, I see firsthand
that sometimes our brothers and sisters in the PBA don’t have
their current beneficiaries documented. In times like the past few
months, with the shock and disbelief of losing loved ones so quickly
and tragically, our loved ones probably are not thinking of being
a beneficiary. The last thing on anyone’s mind during the grieving
process is who the beneficiary to your pension is. Please make sure
you don’t put your loved ones in a position to have to worry about
your pension because, sadly, they will worry about a lot more.
14
NEW JERSEY COPS
■ DECEMER 2016
The Police and Fire Retirement Pension is a defined benefit plan
and, in these instances, for a line-of-duty death, the survivors of the
deceased would be entitled to certain benefits as long as they are
documented as the beneficiary to your pension. In cases resulting
in an accidental death benefit, your eligible surviving spouse, civil
union partner, or eligible same-sex domestic partner is paid an annual pension of 70 percent of your compensation. This benefit is a
lifetime benefit to your surviving spouse or partner. If there is no
eligible surviving spouse/partner, or if the surviving spouse/partner dies, a pension is paid to your eligible children, in equal shares,
in the amount of 70 percent of your compensation. If there is no
surviving spouse, child or parent, your pension contributions will
be paid to your named beneficiary. In the event that a specific beneficiary is not named, the funds will be paid to the member’s estate.
If your death occurs in active service before retirement, your
named beneficiary (or estate where there is no named beneficiary) receives a group life insurance benefit equal to three-and-a-half
times your compensation. If you die during the first year of creditable service, the benefit is three-and-a-half times your creditable
base salary upon which pension contributions were paid. The
death benefits cannot be paid out until all of the required information is provided to the Division of Pensions, including having
the death certificate and the necessary claim forms completed and
sent to the Division of Pensions for processing.
Please take a few minutes to log into your MBOS account and
update, edit or add the people in your life you would want to be the
beneficiary of your pension. d