Benefit payments to an Employee shall commence as of the first day of the month in which the Employee has satisfied the conditions of eligibility and the Trustees have received and approved his/her application for benefits. Such payments shall be retroactive to the first day of the month following the later of: (1) the month in which the Employee satisfied the requirements for the requested benefit, or (2) the date application was made.

If you disagree with a decision of the Plan Administrator or the Board of Trustees, you may file an appeal not later than 60 days after receiving an adverse determination, or not later than 180 days if your appeal concerns disability benefits. A lawsuit based on a denial of benefits must be filed within 1 year from the date that the Board of Trustees informs you of its decision.

Qualified Domestic Relations Orders

The benefits provided by this Plan are subject to any qualified domestic relations order which creates or recognizes the existence of an alternative payee's right to, or assigns to an alternate payee the right to, receive all or a portion of the benefits payable with respect to a participant under the Plan. It includes any judgment, decree or order (including approval of a property settlement agreement) which relates to the provision of child support, alimony payments, or marital property rights to a spouse, child or other dependent of a participant, and is made pursuant to a State Domestic Relations Law (including a community property law). In the event the Plan is served with such an order, it shall promptly notify the participant and any other alternative payee of the order, and of its procedures for determining the qualified or unqualified status of the order.

Your right to pension benefits under the Defined Benefit Plan depends upon how many years of Credited Service you have earned and the value of the credits for the years in which you earned Credited Service. You earn Credited Service by performing employment for participating employers in positions for which contributions are required to be made to this Plan ("covered employment"). There are two types of Credited Service: Prior Service and Current Service.

 Credited Prior Service

If you were a participant in the U. A. Local No. 159 Pension Plan (or any other Pension Plan which was merged into the Bay Area Pipe Trades Pension Plan), the credits you accrued under that Plan are recognized under this Plan. Your Prior Plan credits include both your Past Service and your Future Service under the Prior Plan.

 Credited Current Service

Credited Current Service is granted for all employment for which contributions are or have been required to be made to this Plan, from July 1, 1976, forward. All employees who are working in covered employment are eligible to accrue Current Service Credit under the Plan. After July 1, 1994, covered employment includes only employment under collective bargaining agreements of U. A. Local No. 159 or under reciprocity agreements.

 Vesting Credit

You will earn Vesting Credit in any Plan Year in which you work 300 hours of covered employment. A full Year of Vesting Credit is granted for performance of 1,000 hours of covered employment in a Plan Year. Partial credit of 0.3 Year (three-tenths of a Year) is granted for 300 hours, and additional credit of 0.1 Year (one-tenth of a Year) for each additional 100 hours, up to the maximum of one Year of Vesting Credit in any Plan Year. Vesting Credit includes:

1. hours worked under a Collective Bargaining Agreement of U. A. Local No. 159;
2. hours worked for a participating Individual Employer upon non-covered contiguous employment, such as a supervisory or other non-bargaining unit position, provided there was no quit, layoff, other discharge or retirement between the covered and non-covered employment;
3. hours of covered employment as a full-time representative of the Union or a related entity; and
4. hours recognized under a reciprocal agreement between this Trust Fund and another U. A. Trust Fund.

 Benefit Credit

The amount of benefits you receive, and your eligibility for certain rights under the Plan, depends on how much Benefit Credit you have accrued. If you were a member of U. A. Local No. 159 on July 1, 1994, Benefit Credits accrued before that date (when this Plan was known as the Bay Area Pipe Trades Pension Plan), or before July 1, 1976 under a Prior Plan, remain valid. (Please note that no benefits are paid for any credits which have been lost due to a permanent break in service under this Plan or a Prior Plan.)

A year of Benefit Credit is currently granted for 1200 hours of Credited Current Service in a Plan Year, with no maximum. To obtain the current value of Benefit credits under the Plan, refer to the Formal Plan Document.

A statement is distributed each year to each participant with his or her Benefit Credits and the resulting normal monthly retirement benefit amount. If you want information about your personal Benefit Credits, contact the Plan Administrator.

Retirement benefits under the Plan are paid as monthly benefit payments. Benefits are normally paid for your life alone, or if you are married, for your life and your spouse's life. The Plan also provides three types of Single Life Annuities (two of which have minimum benefit guarantees), and contingent beneficiary options, which pay benefits for your life and the life of a designated non-spouse beneficiary. Any election by a married participant of a benefit other than a Joint and Survivor Annuity is subject to your spouse's consent. Once you have received your first check, you may not change your election, except as expressly provided in the Plan.

 Single Life Annuities:

The Plan provides the following types of single life annuities:

60-Month Guarantee - The Plan’s Normal Retirement Benefit is a monthly benefit for your life alone, with a guarantee of sixty months of benefits. This guarantee means that if you do not survive to receive sixty months of benefits, your designated beneficiary will receive the remaining payments of the guaranteed period. All other forms of pension are adjusted to be the actuarial equivalent of this benefit.

120-Month Guarantee - The Plan also provides a single life annuity benefit with a 120-month guarantee, which is reduced from your Normal Retirement Benefit by a factor which reflects your age at retirement.

Social Security Integration Option - For early retirements, the Plan provides a single life annuity benefit, which is adjusted to be higher before your Social Security Old Age Benefits begin, and reduced thereafter, so that your income after retirement is reasonably constant.

Pop-Down Feature (electing a J&S Annuity after retirement) - Effective for benefits payable after January 1, 1998, regardless of when you retired, if you are receiving a single life annuity form of benefit (other than the Social Security Integration Option), and you are married to a new spouse after retirement for twelve months, then you may apply any time before the fourteenth month of your marriage to convert your pension to a Joint and Survivor Annuity for the benefit of your new spouse. You may submit an application before the twelfth month of your marriage, but the new form of benefit will apply only after the twelfth month. This option is available only once in your lifetime.

 Joint and Survivor Annuities with Pop-Up Feature:

The Plan provides the following types of Joint and Survivor Annuities, which pay either 50% survivor benefits, 75% survivor benefits, or 100% survivor benefits.

A Joint & Survivor Annuity has two parts: a monthly benefit for your life, followed by a monthly survivor benefit paid to your spouse, in an amount which is a fixed percentage of the monthly benefit paid while you were alive (either 50%, 75% or 100%).  In all three options, the amount of the benefit paid while you and your spouse are living is reduced so that the combined benefits payable to you and your surviving spouse are the actuarial equivalent of the Single Life Annuity with 60-Month Guarantee. The actual amount of this reduction depends on your age and your spouse's age at your retirement.

The 75% and 100% Joint and Survivor Annuities are subject to greater reductions than the 50% Joint and Survivor Annuity, in return for which greater survivor benefits are paid to your surviving spouse.

Pop-Up Features - The Plan provides for "pop-up" features for all Joint and Survivor Annuity forms of benefit. If you elect one of these forms of benefit, and your spouse dies before you, your benefits "pop-up" to your unreduced Normal Retirement Benefit, but without the 60-month guarantee. (If you took a reduced Early Retirement, that reduction still applies.)

The pop-up feature may also apply in the case of divorce. Effective for benefits payable on or after January 1, 1998, regardless of when you retired, if you get divorced from your beneficiary-spouse, you may apply to have your benefits pop-up to your Normal Retirement Benefit, if you provide the following documents:

• a certified copy of the judgement of dissolution of your marriage to your beneficiary-spouse; and
• a qualified domestic relations order in a form satisfactory to the Board of Trustees which terminates all rights of the beneficiary-spouse to any benefits under the Plan (expressly including survivor benefits).

 Contingent Beneficiary Options

The contingent beneficiary options are identical to the joint and survivor annuities (including the "pop-up" feature), except that your survivor benefits are paid to someone other than your spouse. If you are married at retirement, you may elect this form of benefit only with your spouse's consent. Like the joint and survivor annuities, your benefits are adjusted to reflect your age and your beneficiary's age at your retirement. You may not designate a beneficiary who is so young that monthly benefits of less than $25 would be paid.

 Pop-Up Options with 60-Month Guarantee

The Plan also provides 50%, 75%, and 100% joint and survivor annuities, for the benefit of your spouse, which have both a "pop-up" feature, and a guarantee of 60 months of benefits. Under this guarantee, if both you and your spouse die before a total of 60 months of benefits is paid, benefit payments will continue to your designated beneficiary until a total of 60 monthly benefits has been paid. These forms of benefit are subject to an additional 1%, 1¹/₂%, and 2% reduction from the 50%, 75%, and 100% Survivor Annuities, respectively.

 Electing Your Form of Benefit

You make your election of your form of benefit at your retirement, in writing, on your Plan application forms. Different rules apply, depending on whether you are married or unmarried at retirement.

• Married - The 50% Joint and Survivor Annuity form of benefit will apply if you are married, unless you expressly elect another form of benefit on the proper Plan form. You and/or your spouse may waive or reinstate the 50% Joint and Survivor Annuity any time, and any number of times, before you receive your first check. If your spouse consents to waiving a Joint and Survivor Annuity and approves your election of another form of benefit and/or your designation of beneficiary, you may elect any of the other options available under the Plan.

• Unmarried: If you are not married at retirement, you may elect any of the single life annuities or contingent beneficiary annuities.

Once you receive your first check, you may not change your form of benefit, except that you may exercise a “pop-up” or “pop-down” option, if you qualify, and retirees who have elected a Single Life Annuity may name a new beneficiary for the guaranteed benefits, subject to spousal consent if applicable.