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HOOPP
Members Life Changes Planning for Loved Ones If You Pass Away After Retirement

If you pass away after retirement

Your retirement is a time for you to enjoy your hard-earned HOOPP pension. It's also an important time to secure your legacy and ensure your loved ones are taken care of after you’re gone.

Survivor benefits are a key feature of the Plan, and can help protect your loved ones when you pass away. Learn more about survivor benefits and what you need to consider below.

Survivor Benefits Guidance ToolPlan for the future with the Survivor Benefits Guidance Tool

The tool offers education and guidance to help you learn about survivor benefits available to your loved ones, after you pass away in retirement.

Use the Survivor Benefits Guidance Tool on HOOPP Connect today.

With a qualifying spouse

When you pass away in retirement, your qualifying spouse at the time of your retirement is entitled to receive 66 2/3% of your monthly pension, not including a bridge benefit, for the rest of their life. When you retire, you may choose to increase this benefit to 80% or 100% of your monthly pension. These options will result in an adjustment to your pension to reflect the additional benefit for your spouse.

If you pass away within five years of your retirement date, your surviving spouse will receive the same monthly benefit as you (not including the bridge benefit) for the rest of the five-year period. When the five-year period ends, your spouse will receive 66 2/3%, 80%, or 100% of your monthly benefit, depending on your choice at retirement. If both you and your spouse pass away before the end of the five-year period, the remaining payment will go to your beneficiaries or, if there are none, to your estate.

It is important to note that the person who is your qualifying spouse when you retire is, by law, entitled to receive survivor benefits when you pass away, even if you later separate and you start a new spousal relationship, unless that entitlement is waived in the prescribed manner prior to your retirement or upon the breakdown of the spousal relationship.

When choosing a spousal benefit option at retirement, be sure to consider:
  • Do you expect your spouse will live longer than you?
    Age, family history and health are factors when you consider how long you and your spouse will collect your pension. In some cases, the 66 2/3% option may be sufficient. However, you may want to consider increasing your spousal benefit to 80% or 100%.

  • Does your spouse have their own pension or other sources of retirement income?
    If they will be relying on your pension as their main source of income, you should consider the 80% or 100% options.

  • If you pass away first, will your spouse have sufficient income or savings to manage their current and future living expenses?
    Your HOOPP pension, your spouse’s pension, any CPP and OAS pensions and personal savings contribute to your household income in retirement. When you pass away, your government pensions will stop, and your spouse may have less to live on. HOOPP’s survivor benefits provide secure and reliable income that may become even more important to your spouse at that time. You can increase your spouse’s lifetime pension by electing the 80% or 100% options.

It’s important to keep these things in mind while planning for retirement as everyone’s personal circumstances are different, and these can be deciding factors in choosing a spousal benefit option. Learn more about choosing the right option for your spouse.

We are here to help you with this decision. Contact our Member Services team to discuss the spousal benefit option that’s right for your personal situation.

Waiving survivor benefits

Within the 12 months leading up to your first pension payment, you and your qualifying spouse can choose to waive the right to a spousal pension. This choice must be made before your pension payments begin. Waiving this entitlement means your spouse will not receive a monthly spousal pension if you pass away before them. Instead, HOOPP will pay any survivor benefits to your beneficiaries if you pass away before receiving 15 years of payments.

Once your pension payments begin, a waiver cannot be reversed. Please contact our Member Services team for more information. To find out more about waiving of survivor benefits, please see the Waiver of Joint and Survivor Pension form under Pension Forms & Resources.

Note:

Since everyone’s personal and financial circumstances are unique, you and your spouse may wish to seek out professional independent financial advice if you are considering waiving survivor benefits.

Without a qualifying spouse

If you do not have a qualifying spouse at retirement and you pass away before receiving 15 years of payments, your beneficiaries will be eligible to receive a survivor benefit. Your beneficiaries can choose to receive this benefit as either:

  • A continuation of your monthly pension payments, not including any bridge benefits, for the balance of the 15-year period, or
  • A lump-sum payment representing the value of your remaining payments in the 15-year period. This amount is paid in cash and is taxable in the year it is received.

If you don’t choose a beneficiary, or your beneficiary passes away before you, any benefits payable when you pass away will go to your estate as a lump-sum payment (less applicable withholding taxes).

If your beneficiary also dies before 180 payments have been made, the value of the remaining pension payments, excluding any bridge benefits, will be paid to your beneficiary's estate as a lump sum.

Relationship changes after retirement

Whether you separate, marry or start a common-law relationship after you’ve retired, it can impact your pension.

If you separate from your qualifying spouse after retirement, they will still be entitled to receive a monthly survivor benefit after you pass away.

If you marry for the first time, remarry, or begin a common-law relationship after retirement, you may be able to apply to HOOPP to provide your new spouse with a monthly pension in the event that you pass away first. Time limits and conditions apply. Contact our Member Services team as soon as possible to discuss your situation.

If your application to provide survivor benefits to your new spouse is approved by HOOPP, your pension will be adjusted to reflect the cost of providing this benefit. The adjustment will be based on your age and the age of your spouse at the time the choice is made. Learn more about relationship changes and your pension.

Updating your spouse and beneficiary information

Be sure to keep your spousal status and beneficiary information up to date. If you want to add a spouse or designate a beneficiary before retirement, please use HOOPP Connect; if you wish to update this information after you retire, please contact our Member Services team for assistance. Please be aware that beneficiary information cannot be updated over the phone.

Additional information

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.