Nortel Networks Corporation – 75
April 25, 2011
Pension Unlocking Option for Disabled Employees Suffering Financial Hardship
Disabled Employees who are eligible to retire and who wish to receive a monthly pension should contact Morneau to commence the retirement process. Ontario’s Superintendent of Financial Services has also provided its approval to the Administrator to permit certain lump sum transfers to Nortel’s Disabled Employees. The Superintendent has approved interim transfers of up to 50% of the estimated commuted value that you are expected to ultimately receive from the Plan (that is, 50% of your pension value calculated at the estimated funded ratio; so, if the funded ratio is 60%, you could transfer up to 30% of your pension value) to a locked-in retirement account for Nortel’s Disabled Employees, regardless of whether or not you are currently eligible to receive a monthly pension. The intent of this extraordinary permission is to permit those Disabled Employees who are suffering financial hardship to access a portion of their pension funds through an application to their provincial pension regulator to unlock their pension monies. Click here to access the Ontario Financial Hardship Unlocking form. This option will be available to Disabled Employees who have accrued benefits from employment in Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia. Disabled Employees who wish to take advantage of this option should contact Morneau to request an election form. Note that once you have chosen to take your partial CV transfer, you will not be permitted to apply to start your pension from the Nortel plan. The remainder of your pension entitlement (the total of which will be reduced to the wind-up funded ratio) will be paid out pursuant to the final wind-up of the Plan.
