Pension Plan Document PDF (258 KB) Amendments: I  II  III  IV  V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX

    

Article I, Section 2

Section 2. Beneficiary.

1. The term “Beneficiary” as used herein shall mean the person or persons last designated by the Participant as Beneficiary in accordance with the provisions hereof. The term “Beneficiary” shall also include a joint annuitant. A Participant may change a Beneficiary designation by filing a new form with the Directors at any time prior to the earlier of the Participant’s death or the Participant’s Annuity Starting Date; except with respect to benefits set forth in Section 4(a)(1) and (2) of Article IV, such designation is irrevocable at that time. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a Beneficiary designation shall not be valid with respect to a death benefit payable under Sections 1, 2 and/or 3 of Article V if a Surviving Spouse Benefit is payable under Section 4 of Article V.
   
   
2. If no Surviving Spouse Benefit is payable and no valid Beneficiary designation is considered to exist at the time of the Participant’s or Pensioner’s death, then benefits otherwise payable to a Beneficiary shall be payable to the fully appointed and currently acting personal representative of the Participant’s estate (which shall include either the Participant’s probate estate or living trust).
   
   
3. In any case where there is no such personal representative of the Participant’s estate duly appointed and acting in that capacity within 90 days after the Participant’s death, (or such extended period as the Directors determine is reasonably necessary to allow such personal representative to be appointed, but not to exceed 180 days after the Participant’s death), the following rules shall govern. If the Participant died testate, then Beneficiary or Beneficiaries shall mean the person or persons who can verify to the satisfaction of the Directors that they are legally entitled to receive the benefits specified hereunder. If the Participant died intestate, such benefits shall be payable in the following order:
   
   
   1. the Participant’s or Pensioner’s spouse;
   2. the Participant’s or Pensioner’s issue;
   3. the Participant’s or Pensioner’s parents;
   4. the issue of the Participant’s or Pensioner’s parents;
   5. the Participant’s or Pensioner’s Beneficiary under the Writers’ Guild-Industry Health Fund; or
   6. such person as may be chosen in the discretion of the Directors.
   
   A category of Beneficiary described in one of the six clauses set forth in this subsection shall only be eligible to receive a benefit if no person described in a preceding clause is alive at the time of death. If the issue described in clauses (2) and (4) are of different degrees of kinship to the Participant or Pensioner, the rules of intestate succession then in existence under the California Probate Code shall determine the amount to be taken by each Beneficiary.
   
   
4. In the event any amount is payable under the Plan to a minor, payment shall not be made to the minor, but instead shall be paid (1) to that person’s then living parent(s) to act as custodian, (2) if that person’s parents are then divorced, and one parent is the sole custodial parent, to such custodial parent, or (3) if no parent of that person is then living, to a custodian selected by the Directors to hold the funds for the minor under the Uniform Transfers or Gifts to Minors Act in effect in the jurisdiction in which the minor resides. If no parent is living and the Directors decide not to select another custodian to hold the funds for the minor, then payment shall be made to the duly appointed and currently acting guardian of the estate for the minor or, if no guardian of the estate for the minor is duly appointed and currently acting within 60 days after the date the amount becomes payable, payment shall be deposited with the court having jurisdiction over the estate of the minor.