Important! Ensure that your loved ones are covered!

If you are vested in the AFM pension fund and are not married, make sure you have a pre-retirement beneficiary form filed with the pension fund.

If you are entitled to pension benefits but you haven’t started receiving them you should make sure someone close to you receives a pre-retirement death benefit if you die before you have a chance to receive your benefit.

If you are married and the pension fund knows you’re married, your spouse will automatically get the benefit.

But what if your spouse predeceases you? You might want the benefit to go to someone else — an adult child, for instance or a sibling.

You can split the benefit up if you like. For example, if your spouse dies before you do before the benefit begins you can have half the benefit go to one child and the other half go to the other.

If you are vested, not married, and you do not have a beneficiary form on file with the fund office, no one will receive a benefit if you die before the payments begin. This is a tragic waste of a benefit for your loved ones.

According to the pension fund’s records, as of June 30, 2024, there are about 17,000 participants with over four years of vesting credit who are not yet receiving benefit payments and have no beneficiary form on file. Of that number, about 11,700 are not married according to the fund’s records.

• If you log into the AFM pension fund portal here and click on “Beneficiary Information,” you will be able to tell if you have a form on file. If you don’t, you can fill it out online.
• For more information, click here and select “Retirement is Down the Road.”
• For even more information, download this “DID YOU KNOW” poster as a PDF.

Local 802 Executive Board member Martha Hyde is a trustee of both the Local 802 Musicians’ Health Fund as well as the AFM Pension Fund (AFM-EPF).