If you die before retirement, your spouse or beneficiary may be eligible for one of the pre-retirement death benefits provided by the Plan.

 Qualified Pre-Retirement Survivor Annuity

If you have a vested interest in the Plan and you die before retirement, your spouse is entitled to a 100% Survivor Annuity, similar to the benefits he or she would have received if you had lived to retire. This benefit begins on application of your spouse, at any time on or after the date you would have been eligible to retire on Early Retirement, subject to the reduction, if any, which would have applied to your retirement on that date. An exception exists for qualifying participants who die in an accident and would not qualify for Early Retirement. The complete rules regarding the Qualified Pre-Retirement Survivor Annuity appear in Article V, Section 1, of the Formal Plan Document.

 Optional Pre-Retirement Death Benefit

The Plan Optional Pre-Retirement Death Benefit is a benefit payable to your spouse who waives the Qualified Pre-Retirement Survivor Annuity above, or to your registered domestic partner, or to your valid beneficiary or beneficiaries, consisting of:

1. $4,000 for each Year of Benefit Credit you accrued before retirement, up to a total of the lesser of (A) $100,000, or (B) 100 times your Normal Retirement Benefit; plus

2. For your surviving spouse or registered domestic partner only, the 100% survivor annuity described in Qualified Pre-Retirement Survivor Annuity above, but actuarially reduced to account for the payments received under number 1 in Optional Pre-Retirement Death Benefit above.

Normally, the benefits under number 1 in Optional Pre-Retirement Death Benefit above are paid in equal installments over 12 months following your death. However, if the benefit will be less than $100,000, it may be paid in a single lump sum at your beneficiary's request, so long as the total lump sum benefits to be paid by the Plan to all Plan participants in a Plan Year will not exceed $1 million.

 Designation of Beneficiary for Pre-Retirement Death Benefits

If you are married at the time of a pre-retirement death, your beneficiary is your surviving spouse. A surviving spouse has the option to elect either the Qualified Pre-Retirement Survivor Annuity or the Plan Optional Death Benefit. If you have no surviving spouse, or if your spouse consents, then you may designate any person (or persons) as your beneficiary (or beneficiaries) of the Plan Optional Pre-Retirement Death Benefit, except that only your spouse or registered domestic partner is eligible to receive the annuity under #2 above, and non-spouse beneficiaries are eligible to receive only the benefits under #1 above and not the annuity under #2.  If you do not have a surviving spouse and have not named a beneficiary, or if your designation is invalid, the Plan Optional Pre-Retirement Death Benefit under #1 above will be paid to beneficiaries from your family, as follows: to your children, if any are living, or if none, to your parents, if living, or if none, to your siblings.

In general, your designation of beneficiary is treated as valid, subject to spousal consent if you are married. However, there are two exceptions:

If you designate your spouse as your beneficiary, and you become divorced from that spouse, that designation will be automatically revoked, unless it is preserved in a Qualified Domestic Relations Order ("QDRO") or you submit a new designation of that former spouse.

If you submit a designation of beneficiary before you get married, that designation becomes null and void, and is not revived if you later get divorced.

You may receive Disability Retirement benefits if you are permanently incapacitated from working in covered employment in the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry (unless that incapacity resulted from self-inflicted injury or habitual use of drugs or alcohol), and you have attained the required age with qualifying service credits.

For disability benefits, qualifying service credits means:

(1) at least 300 hours of covered employment in any of one of the three Plan Years ending with the year that your disability began; and

(2) either: (A) ten or more years of Vesting Credits and Benefit Credits, or (B) five (5) or more years of Vesting Credits and Benefit Credits and a Social Security Disability Award, and you have attained age 55; or (C) at least nine and one-half (9.5) years of Vesting Credit and at least ten (10) years of Benefit Credit and you have attained at least age 54, and you have obtained the written opinion of a licensed physician that you have 6 or fewer months left to live.

Effective or applications filed on or after July 1, 2006, if you have reached age 65, or if you have a Social Security Disability Award, or if you satisfy the requirements for a Service or Age and Service Retirement, Disability Retirement Benefits are unreduced from your Normal Retirement Benefits.

If you have not reached age 65, or if you have not received a Social Security Disability Award, or if you do not satisfy the requirements for a Service or Age and Service Retirement, Disability Retirement Benefits will be your monthly Normal Retirement Benefit, reduced by a factor based upon your total annual wages.

When you apply for a disability retirement, you will be required to submit a sworn statement of your total annual wages, along with a copy of the first page of your federal tax return, and all W-2 forms and Schedule Cs. No later than April of each year thereafter, you must submit a copy of the first page of your federal tax return, and all W-2 forms and Schedule Cs, to document your total annual wages. Your benefit will be adjusted as necessary based on the paperwork you submit, and any adjustment will take effect on July 1 of each year and remain in effect for one year.

The Board of Trustees may also require you to submit proof of your continuing disability.

There is also a Special Disability Benefit of a one-time lump sum payment for participants who do not qualify for other benefits and who meet the qualifications listed in Article II, Section 5 of the Formal Plan Document.

You may receive reduced Early Retirement benefits if you retire from the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry on or after the attainment of age 55 with 10 Years of Vesting and Benefit Credits. Early Retirement Benefits for people who qualify under this rule are reduced by ¹/₄ of 1% for each month that your retirement effective date precedes your Normal Retirement date through age 60, and by ¹/₂ of 1% for each month that it precedes your 60th birthday.

You may receive Normal Retirement benefits upon attaining any of the following combinations of age, service, and retirement status:

You reach age 65 with 5 Vesting Credits (counting only years with at least 1000 hours of covered employment), or with less than 5 Vesting Credits, age 65 and the fifth anniversary of the date you commenced participation under the Plan without a break in service, and you retire from the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry; or

On April 1 following the calendar year in which you turn age 70¹/₂ if you are at least a 5% owner of a contributing employer, or if you have retired from Industry Service.

You may receive an unreduced early "Service Retirement Benefit", if you retire from the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry and you satisfy all three of these rules:

1. you have at least 25 Years of Benefit Credit;
2. at least 25 years have elapsed since your enrollment date under the Plan; and
3. on June 30, 1976, you were a member of a Prior Plan of the Bay Area Pipe Trades Pension Plan.

If your Enrollment Date is after June 30, 1976, you may retire on an "Age and Service Retirement" when you have attained age 55 and accrued 30 Years of Benefit Credit, and at least 30 years have elapsed since your enrollment under the Plan.

Both types of Service Retirement Benefits are unreduced from Normal Retirement Benefit amounts, based on your highest twenty-five years of Benefit Credit up through December 1980, if any, and additional Benefit Credit from January 1981 forward, without limit.