Group insurance is one of the best known and most commonly offered fringe benefits. It provides the opportunity to top up your meagre state pension with a complementary pension, available through your employer. Throughout your career, you build up a retirement nest egg through regular employer contributions and – in some companies – through employee contributions as well. When you retire, you cash in on the savings in the form of a lump sum or a monthly annuity, depending on your pension plan. There are positives and negatives to both options, which we've summarised here.
Your pension plan regulations will stipulate the different ways you can cash in on your entitlements as well as the age the supplementary savings can be claimed. The regulations are available from your HR department.
Another important document is your benefits statement. Each year, your group insurance provider will send you a statement which features your gross entitlements if you were to leave your company (= your accrued reserves). It also includes the projected value of your benefits when you reach retirement age.
As benefits statement can be a challenge to understand, we've put together a handy jargon buster to assist you.
If you have a group insurance plan with AG Employee Benefits, you'll receive an e-mail alert to let you know whenever you have a new benefits statement available. Via MyAG Employee Benefits, you'll have access to your historical benefits statements with all of your employers, past and present, as long as the plans in question are managed by AG Employee Benefits.
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The MyAG Employee Benefits app consolidates all your employee benefits: supplementary pension, healthcare and income protection covers. This way, you always have all information about your benefits at your fingertips! Download the app from your app store and try it out right away.