LAPP Resources for Members

LAPP is the largest pension plan in Alberta, serving over 330,000 members across the province, including CUPE 38 members. As a member, LAPP offers you peace of mind by helping to ensure your retirement income is well cared for.

LAPP is a defined benefit pension plan, a type of retirement plan that provides you with a pension for life, no matter how long you live.

As a member of LAPP, you receive several advantages:

• LAPP provides a retirement income for life and helps you save for tomorrow, so you can focus on today.
• Your pension will be adjusted for inflation for life. This means that when you receive your pension, it will be adjusted yearly to compensate for increases in cost-of-living.
• You save time. You don’t have to spend time making difficult investment decisions because LAPP manages that for you.
• Your employer not only matches the contributions you put in, but they contribute even more.
• You have access to a team of specialists who can answer your pension questions.
• Your pension is safe and secure whenever you decide to retire.
• If you change jobs throughout your career, your pension can move with you to one of over 450 employers that offer LAPP.

You can estimate your pension by using tools on LAPP’s website. The best tool for estimating your pension is the Pension Projection Calculator, available when you log in to Your Pension Profile. If you don’t have a profile yet, you can create one.

You will find the Pension Projection Calculator on Your Pension Profile. Select ‘Use the Pension Projection Calculator’ and then begin using the calculator. The calculator uses your actual salary and LAPP service to help you project your future pension and plan for your retirement.

View all estimators, including the Pension Projection Calculator.

Not all retirement savings work the same way. With an RRSP or a defined contribution pension plan, the amount available in retirement depends on how much money is contributed and how investments perform over time. This means, in retirement, income can vary.

Thankfully for LAPP members, LAPP is different. Because your pension is a defined benefit plan, you will enjoy a predictable, lifetime retirement income you can plan around.

Contributions are payments collected from you and your employer to help fund your pension. Your contributions are deducted from your paycheque and placed in an investment fund to earn more money. Over time, the LAPP fund grows and is used to pay pensions to members.

The LAPP plan’s actuary reviews the contribution rate each year. Because of the plan’s strong financial position, they’ve been able to reduce the rates six of the last nine years, from 2018 to 2026.

On your paycheque stub, you will see your LAPP pension contributions listed as Local Authorities Pens (City) Your contribution rate and your employer’s contribution rate are based on your salary and can vary. Your employer always contributes 1% more than you.

Find your contribution rate here.

The pension you will receive as a LAPP member throughout your retirement is determined by a formula based on your average salary over the highest five consecutive years and the number of years of LAPP pensionable service you have.

Find more on how LAPP calculates my pension.

You can maximize your LAPP pension by buying back service or transferring in service, if applicable. The amount of pensionable service you accumulate directly affects the income you’ll receive when you retire. Buying back or transferring in service helps you increase this total.

Life happens. Whether you took time off for parental leave, a sabbatical, or another personal reason, you may have missed contributing to your pension during that period. A buyback allows you to purchase that missed time, so it still counts toward your pensionable service. This ensures your pension continues to grow, even during times away from work.

Find out more about buybacks and whether I can buy back service.

If you were a member of another pension plan before joining LAPP, you may have the opportunity to transfer that benefit into LAPP. They have transfer agreements with many public-sector pension plans throughout Canada.

Find out more about transfers and what pension plans can be transferred into LAPP.

LAPP’s investments are managed by AIMCo, a professional investment manager with global experience in investing, operations, and risk management. LAPP Corporation’s boards set the investment policy, so the LAPP fund is invested to be diversified to help manage risk and be focused on supporting secure, lifetime pensions for members now and in the future.

Learn more about how investments are managed.

As you prepare to start your LAPP pension, it’s important to understand the steps involved to ensure a smooth and stress-free process. As you prepare to receive your pension, you can book a 30-minute one-on-one session with a pension specialist who will help you prepare.

These are the key steps you will need to complete to start your LAPP pension:

1. Confirm your personal information in Your Pension Profile or by contacting LAPP directly.

2. Choose your LAPP pension start date with your employer through your HR payroll and benefits area.

3. About 2-3 months before you want your LAPP pension to begin, submit your retirement application either online or using the paper form.

4. Complete the forms before the LAPP pension start date you chose with your employer. If you have correctly filled out and returned the required documents to LAPP before your chosen LAPP pension start date, you can expect your first pension payment approximately 30 days afterwards.

Learn more about how to get ready.

Life and work changes can affect your LAPP pension, but you do not have to figure it out alone. Events such as separation, divorce, disability, serious illness, leaving your job, changing your work status, or death before retirement can all have an impact. LAPP has information and support to help you understand your options and make confident decisions about your pension.

If you are retiring in the next two to three years or need help understanding your pension options, you can book a one-on-one session. These sessions are available at LAPP’s downtown Calgary office, by phone, or online.

LAPP also offers members webinars that cover various pension-related topics.

You can also contact LAPP’s Member Services Centre to have your questions answered. They can be reached by calling 1-877-649-5277 or by logging into Your Pension Profile and using Secure Messages.