Every active member of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan should consider designating a beneficiary. This will help ensure your benefits are paid as you wish should you die before you start your pension. Your beneficiary can be one or more people or a corporation, such as a charity.

 
What are the advantages to naming a beneficiary?
Your heirs could save time and money. Funds are paid directly to the beneficiary, without the delays or probate fees associated with the processing of an estate. Estate taxes are also avoided, although your heirs will pay tax on your death benefit.

What if I don’t designate a beneficiary?
If you do not have an eligible spouse, dependent children or a designated beneficiary when you die, any benefits will be payable to your estate. Even if you want benefits to go to your estate, it’s still wise to consciously make that choice by naming your estate as your designated beneficiary.

What do designated beneficiaries get?
If there is no eligible spouse at the time of your death, a designated beneficiary receives a lump-sum payment equal to the commuted value of the pension you accumulated after 1986, minus the value of any child’s pension that may be payable. Any death benefits payable for service before 1987 are paid to your estate, not your beneficiary.

How do I name or change a beneficiary?
You can name or change your beneficiary online at iAccess Web, the secure members-only section of this website.

If you choose to name multiple beneficiaries, any pre-retirement death benefit payable, for service that accrued after 1986, will be divided equally among your beneficiaries.

In the absence of a designated beneficiary, any death benefit payable, after survivors have been taken into account, will go to your estate.

What happens if I die after I collect my pension?
A designated beneficiary exists only for pre-retirement death benefits. Post-retirement benefits are paid to your eligible spouse or, if you don’t have one, to your dependent children and/or estate.