Question: What information is your pension plan required to disclose?

Answer: The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) requires plan administrators - the people who run plans - to give you in writing the most important facts you need to know about your pension plan.  Some of these facts must be provided to you regularly and automatically by the plan administrator.  Others are available upon request, free of charge or for copying fees.  Your request should be made in writing.

One of the most important documents you are entitled to receive automatically when you become a participant of an ERISA-covered pension plan or a beneficiary receiving benefits under such a plan, is a summary of the plan, called the summary plan description or SPD.  Your plan administrator is legally obligated to provide to you, free of charge, the SPD.  The SPD is an important document that tells you what the plan provides and how it operates.  It tells you when you begin to participate in the plan, how your service and benefits are calculated, when your benefit becomes vested, when you will receive payment and in what form, and how to file a claim for benefits.  You should read your SPD to learn about the particular provisions that apply to you.  If a plan is changed you must be informed, either through a revised SPD, or in a separate document, called a summary of material modifications, which also must be given to you free of charge.

In addition to the SPD, the plan administrator must automatically give you each year a copy of the plan's summary annual report.  This is a summary of the annual financial report that most pension plans must file with the Department of Labor.  These reports are filed on government forms called Form 5500 or 5500-C/R.  The summary annual report is available to you at no cost.  To learn more about your plan's assets, you may ask the plan administrator for a copy of the annual report in its entirety.

If you are unable to get the SPD, the summary annual report, or the annual report from the plan administrator, you may be able to obtain a copy by writing to:

U.S. Department of Labor
EBSA Public Disclosure Room N-1513
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210

Participants should include their name, address, and telephone number to assist the Employee Benefits and Security Administration in responding to their request.  There may be a nominal copying charge.

If you have information that plan assets are being mismanaged or misused, send details to the nearest regional or district office of the U.S. Department of Labor.