Important Plan Information

Pacific Coast Benefits Trust is a defined contribution money purchase pension plan. Contributions are paid into the Trust by employers on behalf of covered employees under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, generally at an hourly rate. Individual participant contributions are not allowed. Benefits are generally paid in lump sums or taken as an annuity at retirement or rolled over into another qualified tax plan.

Please review your collective bargaining agreement or confirm with your Local Union that you are working in a covered position that qualifies for this benefit.

The Trustees hire an investment consulting firm to advise them and establish investment guidelines for the Trust to follow. The Trust’s current investment consulting firm is Alan Biller & Associates, the same consulting firm the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust uses. Professional money management firms are hired by the Trustees to invest the money according to the investment guidelines the Trustees establish.

In accordance with the guidelines established by the Board of Trustees, the funds are primarily invested in the common and preferred stocks of U.S. companies, corporate bonds, and U.S. Treasury securities. The primary investment objectives are to provide a high degree of security and consistent rates of return.

To access your personal account information, download forms, or begin a distribution or rollover application please login to the secure site.

There are certain costs associated with operating the PCBT, including the overall administration of the plan, collecting and processing employer contributions made on your behalf, maintaining participant accounts, printing and mailing statements and other correspondence, and investment management. Each account pays a small portion of those costs each month – typically between $0.75 to $2.00.

The Internal Revenue Service under section 401 (a) of the code does not allow a qualified pension plan like PCBT to permit participants to withdraw all or part of their funds prior to a severance of employment. If you are still working for the same employer that contributed to the PCBT on your behalf, you are not eligible to receive a benefit payout from your account until you quit or retire. However, if the employer is no longer contributing to the PCBT, or you have transferred into a non-covered position, you can elect to rollover your benefit to another qualified retirement plan.

No. The Trust rules do not allow you to take a loan from your account.

No. You are always 100% vested in your account. You cannot lose your right to the benefit to which you are entitled.

You can receive a retirement benefit at 62 years of age or older, provided you are no longer employed by an employer contributing to the PCBT. Alternately, you can receive a termination benefit, regardless of age, 60 days following your severance of employment with the last employer contributing to the PCBT on your behalf or if the employer is sold to an unrelated entity in a stock or asset sale and the new entity does not participate in the PCBT, even if you continue to work for the new entity. If you are currently working in a non-covered position for your last covered employer, you can elect to rollover your benefit to another qualified retirement plan.

At age 65, even if you remain employed by a contributing employer, you have the option to receive a benefit. A participant’s beneficiary (or beneficiaries) will receive a death benefit equal to the account balance upon a participant’s death.