While you are eligible for a pension benefit after becoming vested, your benefit may be enhanced in a number of ways if you leave employment as a retiree.

Retirement eligibility

To become a retiree, you must first complete 15 years of benefit service, and then leave the company as a regular employee after: 

• Attaining age 55; or
• Becoming entitled to long-term disability benefits under the ExxonMobil Disability Plan

Retirement eligibility - Age and service examples

Turning age 55

For purposes of applying these eligibility provisions, an employee is considered to attain age 55 on the first of the month in which he turns 55. Thus, a person who has already accrued 15 years of benefit service would be eligible to retire as of the first day of the month in which his 55th birthday occurs.

Example 1:

An employee turns 55 years old on October 15. Because of the special retirement eligibility provision, the employee is considered to be 55 years of age as of October 1, which is the earliest day the employee could retire (assuming he already has 15 years of Benefit Service).

Because an employee's retirement date is the first day after his last day of employment, the employee in this example would have to continue in employment until at least September 30 in order to retire. If his last day of employment is earlier than September 30, he would not be eligible for retirement.

Example 2:

Rather than working through September 30, the employee in the above example terminates his employment a day earlier, on September 29. Since the person's "retirement date" (September 30) occurs before he is considered to have attained age 55 (October 1), he would not be eligible for retirement under the ExxonMobil plans.

Attaining 15 years of benefit service

There is no "first of the month" rule when it comes to attaining 15 years of Benefit Service. Benefit Service is measured for this purpose to the closest day, and a person must have actually accrued 15 years of Benefit Service in order to retire.

Example 3:

An employee's 55th birthday is November 11, but will not have accrued 15 years of Benefit Service until November 25. Even though for benefit purposes the employee is considered 55 years old on November 1, she must continue in employment through November 25 in order to be eligible for retirement. If her last day of employment is November 24, she would not be eligible for retirement.

If you retire from the company, you have up to four advantages, which are:

1. Your benefit is not reduced as much if you begin receiving it early (see section on Receiving your pension benefit).
2. You have additional payment options (see section on Payment options).
3. Your Social Security offset may be less (see section on Pension options). 
4. You may be eligible to receive a Pre-Social Security pension.