Formerly, for Ontario Members, in the event of your pre-retirement death, the death benefit would be paid:

• To the spouse you are living with at that time (common law or married) in priority over any other person
• To your designated beneficiary if you are not living with a spouse, or if the spouse you are living with has waived priority; or
• To your estate, if you are not living with a spouse or if the spouse you are living with has waived priority, and if you have no surviving designated beneficiary.

Now, for Ontario Members, the rights of your common law spouse have changed if you have a common law spouse and you also have a married spouse from whom you are separated but not divorced.

Under the new Ontario rules pre-retirement death benefits will be paid:

• To your married spouse if you are living together at the time of your death;
• If you are living with a common law spouse at the time of your death:
  - To your common law spouse if you do not also have a married spouse from whom you are separated but not divorced;
  - To your designated beneficiary if you also have a married spouse from whom you are separated but not divorced;
• To your designated beneficiary if you have no spouse who is eligible or if your eligible spouse has waived priority; or
• To your estate if you have no eligible spouse and no surviving designated beneficiary.

If you are an Ontario Member with a common law spouse, and you also have a married spouse from whom you are separated but not divorced, and if you want your Carleton University Retirement Plan pre-retirement death benefits to be paid to your common law spouse, your common law spouse must be your designated beneficiary. You should review your beneficiary designation on your annual statement and make any desired changes. You are encouraged to obtain professional advice especially if you have an agreement or court order concerning family property or have special estate planning needs.

You can complete a new designation of beneficiary form by submitting the Pension Beneficiary Change Form to Human Resources or accessing it at the following website.

Please remember that it is always important to notify the Pension Department of Human Resources whenever you have a life change. If you have any questions, call Neil Courtemanche or Jean Ouellette at 520-2600 ext. 3634.

Definition of common law spouse

A person who, at the date of determination, is not married to the Member but has been living with the Member in a conjugal relationship:

i. continuously for a period of not less than three years; or

ii. in a relationship of some permanence if they are the natural or adoptive parents of a child as defined in the Family Law Act, 1986.

This notice provides you with general information for illustration purposes and is based on the current provisions of the applicable legislation and the Carleton University Retirement Plan, which could change in the future. Your particular situation at the time of death may also lead to a different result.

For assistance with this tool, please refer to the Retirement Planner Tool Reference Guide.

If you have any questions regarding accessing and running the Planner or interpreting the results, you can contact Jean Ouellette (x8637) or Neil Courtemanche (x8639).

Great-West Life has provided a great tool on their Group Retirement Services (GRS) Access website to assist with retirement planning. This tool allows you to:

• Envision a retirement lifestyle
• Calculate how much retirement income you’ll need
• Determine your risk tolerance for investing
• Select Investments
• Save information for future use

To login to the GRS website, use the following access ID and password:

• Access ID: 3932589
• Password: 9091343
• Expiry Date: November 8, 2013

As a Carleton employee, you can contribute by payroll deduction to the University’s Group RRSP.

Bring your lunch and find out more at a Group RRSP Information session on:

November 22, 2012
12:00pm
617 Robertson Hall

RSVP to Debi Nickless at debi_nickless@carleton.ca

You can also check out the Group Retirement Services (GRS) Access website:

• Access ID: 3932589
• Password: 9091343
• Expiry Date: November 8, 2013

This change will affect:

• Current Retirement Plan members born after 1957, who have prior Carleton service that is eligible to be bought back
• New members born after 1957 and hired within the last twelve months who would like to transfer a prior employer pension to purchase Carleton Retirement Plan service.

In December of 2011, a letter was sent to all the Retirement Plan members who were affected by this change.

If you did not receive this letter and you think you may have service that is eligible to be bought back, please complete the Pension – Past Service Information Request form and send it to Human Resources.

Buyback letter to members

Pension – Past Service Information Request