Benefits Handbook

The Internal Revenue Code provides that no plan amendment may retroactively reduce your previously accrued benefit under a tax qualified plan, unless necessary to keep the plan tax qualified. This means, for example, that if the benefit formula is changed in the future by an amendment to the tax-qualified plan, your accrued benefit after the amendment may never be less than your accrued benefit before the amendment. These rules also currently provide that certain changes in the actuarial factors used to calculate your benefits and the options and early retirement subsidies available under that plan may not be applied to your accrued benefit prior to the change. In addition to being notified of any future changes in the benefit formula, you will be notified when tax qualified plan assumptions or options are changed if you need to be informed of any rights you have that were protected by law as of the date of the change.