Choosing a retirement age
As a HOOPP member, you have the flexibility to start receiving your lifetime pension as early as age 55, as late as age 71, or anywhere in between. The choice is yours.
Understanding retirement age milestones
The date you choose to retire can impact your overall HOOPP pension amount, with factors like your age, eligibility service and other considerations playing a role. Here are three important considerations:
Want to retire early? Consider attaining at least 15 years of eligibility service
If you are under age 60, reaching 15 years of eligibility service will provide you a better early
retirement benefit. You should consider continuing to work until you reach this milestone, if possible, as you’ll receive a larger overall pension in retirement. You can see your eligibility service in HOOPP Connect or in your most recent
annual statement.
Retire at age 60 or with 30 years of service
Once you reach age 60 or 30 years of eligibility service, you can retire without an early retirement adjustment. You will also receive a monthly bridge benefit until age 65.
The choice is yours. Deciding when to retire is a personal decision. If you are close to one of these milestones, waiting until after you have attained either one will provide you with a larger pension.
Retire later
If you want or need to keep working, every additional year that you participate in HOOPP will increase your pension. You can continue growing your HOOPP pension until December 1 of the year that you reach age 71. At that time, you will need to start
your pension, even if you continue working.
To reflect the fact that you’ve started your pension later, the portion of your pension that you built before age 65 will be increased. It will go up by 0.5% for every month that you work past age 65.
Planning for retirement if you already left your HOOPP employer
If you left your HOOPP employer and kept your pension with HOOPP, your pension is secure and ready for you whenever you decide to retire. That is called deferring your pension. Plus, if you defer, your pension also continues to grow through annual cost of living adjustments (as approved by HOOPP’s Board of Trustees), before and after you retire.
Like all HOOPP members, you can start your deferred pension as early as age 55. However, the closer you get to age 60, the better your early retirement benefit will be. Of course, if you already have 30 years of eligibility service, you are not subject to any early retirement adjustment. For many members, starting their deferred pension earlier could be the right decision.
If you left your HOOPP employer, there’s no advantage for you to delay your pension after age 60 as you are not building contributory service and no longer have an early retirement adjustment. Plus, if you retire between age 55 and 65, you will receive a bridge benefit until age 65.
We’re here for you
When making the decision of when to start your retirement, you’ll have HOOPP here to help you every step of the way. We have the experts to help guide you and the resources to help you understand your pension, including:
- Our Pension Estimator on HOOPP Connect, where you can get detailed projections of what your pension could be at different ages, years of service and earnings increases.
- Our online retirement feature, which allows members to conveniently select their retirement options entirely online, without the need for paper forms. Watch
our video to learn more about this feature.
Contact our Member Services team if you have any questions.
I’m ready to retire. How do I start receiving my pension?
Initiating your retirement is as simple as letting your employer know that you’re ready. Your employer will notify us on your behalf, we’ll take care of the rest! Please make sure to provide your employer with sufficient notice to ensure there is enough time to process your retirement.
Once you’ve told your HOOPP employer you’re ready to retire, you can make your elections online simply and conveniently using the online retirement feature on HOOPP Connect.
Before you can start receiving your pension, you must end your employment at all of your HOOPP employers where you are enrolled and contributing to the Plan.
If you deferred your pension after leaving your HOOPP employer, it is your responsibility to contact HOOPP to notify us of the date you want to start receiving your pension.
Will my pension begin automatically when I retire?
Your monthly pension payments will start on the first day of the month following your chosen retirement date.
To begin this process, provide your employer with sufficient notice that you’d like to retire. They will notify HOOPP so we can start your retirement process and a dedicated Member Services Specialist will support you along the way. You will then receive your retirement options that you will choose from and can review your personal details.
If you deferred your pension after leaving your HOOPP employer, it is your responsibility to contact HOOPP to notify us of the date you want to start receiving your pension.
This document provides a simplified overview of HOOPP's benefits based on the terms of the HOOPP Plan Text at the time of publication. From time to time, HOOPP may amend the HOOPP Plan Text. In cases where the information provided in this document differs from that contained in the HOOPP Plan Text, the HOOPP Plan Text will govern. More details, including the full HOOPP Plan Text and a complete description of the Plan and its benefits, can be found on hoopp.com.
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