Pension & Retirement Savings Plan Reciprocity

If you are looking for Health & Welfare reciprocity, visit the Eligibility & Reciprocity page under Health & Welfare or see the H&W Summary Plan Description.

How to Initiate Reciprocity

The first step is to determine if the Trust you are working with participates in reciprocity with the Alaska Electrical Trust Funds (AETF). To do this, you may call their offices or contact the Administrative Office at (800) 478-1246 and ask to speak to a staff member who manages Reciprocity.

If you have confirmed that the Trust has an electrical industry reciprocity agreement with AETF, you will need to register to use the Electronic Reciprocal Transfer System (ERTS).

The ERTS system is an online portal that enables plan participants working in the electrical industry to request the transfer of pension and health & welfare contributions back to their home funds. Once you are enrolled in ERTS you may review signatory trusts, request reciprocity, and release reciprocity with participating funds online.

Note: if you are working in Alaska but from another jurisdiction, you may reciprocate contributions to your home fund.

How to Register for ERTS

Traveling employees must initially register for ERTS in person (with photo identification) at an assisting Labor Union Office or a Fund Office. At that time, you must sign the Participant Verification Page to complete your initial registration and be issued a User ID and password. 

Once you have completed your initial registration, you will receive a User ID and password in the mail at the address you provided when you registered for ERTS. You will then be able to log in to ERTS.

Reciprocity Transfer Examples

These are examples of how contributions will be transferred for participants who have AETF as their “home fund” (meaning they are Local 1547 members) – who are working outside of the jurisdiction of the AETF who have enrolled in the IBEW/NECA Electronic Reciprocal Transfer System (ERTS). In all examples, all Funds reciprocate through ERTS.

Note: to request transfer of contributions back to AEFT, you first need to register with ERTS. See “How to Register for ERTS” section above.

Example A: If you travel to the jurisdiction of another IBEW/NECA Fund outside of Alaska with both a Defined Contribution Plan (DC) and a Defined Benefit Plan (DB) and you direct that these contributions be transferred to your home fund, employer contributions made to that DC and DB will be transferred back to your account in the Retirement Savings Plan and applied to your benefit in the Alaska Electrical Pension Plan.

 

 

Example B: If you travel to the jurisdiction of another IBEW/NECA Fund outside of Alaska with only a Defined Contribution Plan (DC) and you direct that these contributions be transferred to your home fund, employer contributions made to that DC will be transferred back to your account in the Retirement Savings Plan.

 

Example C: If you travel to the jurisdiction of another IBEW/NECA Fund outside of Alaska with only a Defined Benefit Plan (DB) and you direct that these contributions be transferred to your home fund, employer contributions made to that DB will be applied to your benefit in the Alaska Electrical Pension Plan.

 

Workers traveling to Alaska Electrical Trust Funds should contact their local to determine if they have an electrical industry reciprocity agreement with AETF.