Retirement Savings Plan Summary Plan Description
4.4 Reciprocity
Plan is Signatory to National Reciprocal Agreement
The Plan is a party to the Electrical Industry Pension Reciprocal Agreement (Reciprocal Agreement), giving Participants the ability to cause the transfer of employer contributions from a signatory plan in which they were earned to the Participant's home fund. A copy of the Reciprocal Agreement is available upon written request of the Plan Office. The terms of the Reciprocal Agreement may be changed or amended from time to time by vote of the participating trusts throughout the United States. To determine whether changes have occurred in the Reciprocal Agreement since the printing of this Summary, contact the Plan Office. The National Reciprocity Office is responsible for and handles any appeals, disputes or questions relating to the Reciprocal Agreement, and can be contacted at (202) 728-6121.
Home Fund. Generally, a Participant's home fund is the fund (or funds) maintained by the Participant's local union in which he or she is a member. A Participant may select this Plan as his or her home fund, but only in the unusual case where the Participant is not a participant in the plan of his or her local union. The Plan will reject a Participant's request for the Plan to be that Participant's home fund if the Participant has an accrued benefit in his or her local's plan.
Qualifying for Reciprocal Transfers
To qualify for reciprocal transfers to or from this Plan, you must register on the Electronic Reciprocal Transfer System (ERTS) and present a valid photo identification to your home fund (as defined in the Reciprocal Agreement), any other fund that is signatory to the Reciprocal Agreement, or any IBEW local union. Reciprocity will remain in effect unless and until you request, on ERTS, that reciprocity cease. For further information regarding reciprocity, please contact the Plan Office.
Outbound Reciprocity
If you are a traveler working in Local 6's jurisdiction, Employer contributions may be transferred (reciprocated) over to your home fund if your home fund is signatory to the Reciprocal Agreement and you qualify for reciprocal transfers (see above). If you do not qualify for reciprocal transfers, you will not later be allowed to transfer the Employer contributions portion of your account to your home fund. If no transfer authorization is available (perhaps because your home fund is not signatory to the Reciprocal Agreement), but later becomes available, you will need to execute the authorization if your home fund allows transfers and you wish to have your Employer contributions transferred to your home fund on a prospective basis. Elective deferral contributions made to the Plan cannot be reciprocated to your home fund.
Inbound Reciprocity
If the Plan is your home fund and you become employed in or expect to work in the jurisdiction of another IBEW local union, you may authorize the transfer to the Plan of any employer contributions made on your behalf to a defined contribution plan maintained by that other IBEW local union. Inbound reciprocal contributions from the other IBEW local union's plan will be credited to your account only to the extent that they do not exceed the amount that would have been contributed on your behalf had you worked the hours under the Local 6 CBA. Elective deferral contributions made to another IBEW local union's 401(k) plan are not reciprocated into the Plan; only employer contributions can be reciprocated.
Excess Inbound Reciprocal Contributions. If inbound reciprocal contributions are not credited to your account because they were earned at a contribution rate that exceeds the rate provided under the Local 6 CBA, they generally will be credited to the NCEW Pension Plan. However, if your hours worked under the other IBEW local union's jurisdiction resulted in contributions to that local's defined benefit plan, any reciprocal contributions from the other local's defined benefit plan to the NCEW Pension Plan that, when added to any excess reciprocal contributions under this Plan, exceeds the amount of contributions supportable by the NCEW Pension Plan's contribution rate will be credited to your account in this Plan. (See the NCEW Pension Plan's summary plan description for a summary of the reciprocity rules under that plan.)
Example. For each hour you work under the Local 6 CBA your employer is required to contribute $12.02 to the NCEW Pension Plan and $8.50 to the RSP (this Plan). If you worked in another local's jurisdiction that required an $11.00 contribution to that local's defined benefit pension plan (similar to the NCEW Pension Plan) and another $10.00 to that local's defined contribution plan (similar to the SFEW Retirement Savings Plan), and all of it is reciprocated back to the Local 6 plans, then $12.02 will be credited to the NCEW Pension Plan (i.e., $11.00 + $1.02) and the remaining $8.98 to your account in the RS Plan.
Differential Contributions Under Portability. Differential contributions are the excess of retirement contributions required under another local's collective bargaining agreement over retirement contributions that would have been required under the Local 6 CBA. If you work in another IBEW local union's jurisdiction that is subject to a portability agreement that requires differential contributions to be paid into Local 6's retirement plans, the differential contributions will be credited to the two Local 6 retirement plans based on the relative contribution rates of the two plans. For example, the Inside Wiremen combined pension trust contribution of $20.52 (as of January 1, 2023) consists of a $8.50 contribution to this Plan (about 41% of the total contribution) and a $12.02 contribution to the NCEW Pension Plan (about 59% of the total contribution. For each $1.00 transferred to the pension trust, about $0.41 will be allocated to this Plan and $0.59 will be allocated to the NCEW Pension Plan. Thus, the differential contributions, when added to the contributions transferred under the Reciprocal Agreement, will equal the total hours the Participant worked multiplied by the combined hourly pension rate established under the Local 6 CBA (currently $20.52).
Trust to Trust Transfers
If this Plan is your home fund, you may transfer to the Plan your funds held in a qualified defined contribution plan that is party to the Reciprocity Agreement. Contact the Plan Office for more details.
Special Rules for 401(k) Contributions
Your 401(k) contribution election under the Local 6 CBA will continue to be effective (until changed) in Local 6's jurisdiction even if you work for an Employer that is not a member of SFECA. It will also remain effective when you work outside Local 6's jurisdiction if you are a member of Local 6 and you are working for an SFECA Employer. It will not be effective if you are working outside the jurisdiction of Local 6 and either (i) you are not a member of Local 6 or (ii) your Employer is not a member of SFECA. It will be suspended for any period of time you are working on portability.