Preparing to Retire

When it comes to planning your retirement, the Public Employees Pension Plan (PEPP) makes it easy.

Early retirement

You may retire early. To start receiving a retirement income from PEPP, you need to:

• be at least age 50; and
• have terminated your employment with your PEPP employer.

Normal retirement

Normal retirement age is 65, which means you can convert your account balance to retirement income at this age.

Retirement is not mandatory. You may continue to work for a PEPP employer and contribute to the Plan until the end of the calendar year when you turn age 71.

Deferred pension

You may retire and defer receiving your retirement income from PEPP. You must convert your account balance to a retirement income option by the end of the calendar year when you turn age 71.

Retirement income options

Once you're eligible to start receiving a retirement income, you may choose one or more of these retirement income options:

• PEPP Variable Pension: Transfer to the Variable Pension within PEPP and you determine your retirement income schedule. You can increase or decrease your payments, stop payments or take out lump sums at any time. PEPP's Retirement Planner can help you determine how much money to take out in retirement.
• PEPP Lifetime Pension: Purchase a Lifetime Pension that provides you with dependable monthly payments for life, regardless of how long you live.The Lifetime Pension monthly payments are adjusted up or down each year. However, we expect payments to generally increase over time, which should help your pension keep up with inflation.
• Combination of Variable Pension and Lifetime Pension: You can choose a combination of the Lifetime Pension and Variable Pension for your retirement income. Lifetime Pension is designed to provide you with dependable monthly payments for life, regardless of how long you live. The Variable Pension option offers you flexibility and control over when and how much retirement income to withdraw, and choice over how your money is invested within the Plan. Try our Lifetime Pension Calculator to see how this may be an option you may want to consider.
• Saskatchewan Pension Annuity Fund (SPAF): Purchase a SPAF annuity and receive guaranteed fixed income for your lifetime and a survivor benefit for your spouse's lifetime.
• Purchase a prescribed Registered Retirement Income Fund (pRRIF) or a life annuity from outside of PEPP.

Resources

Retirement planning can be overwhelming so PEPP has created a wide range of resources to help you prepare for your upcoming retirement, including:

Retirement Countdown Checklist

Retirement Planning Worksheets

Retirement Income Options booklet

Or, check out the Learning Events page to learn about PEPP's Your Path to Retirement Workshops and/or register for an option that fits your schedule.

Next step

When you're ready to retire, you'll have to decide on a date for your retirement. Once your employer notifies PEPP, we will send you a letter with a retirement information package.