Lay Employee Pension Plan

The Diocese of Pittsburgh Lay Employee Pension was created on January 1, 1965 to provide retirement benefits for long term employees of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, its parishes, schools, cemeteries and related organizations. Accrual in the plan ended on June 30, 2012.
 
Plan Requirements:

• Eligible employees must work a minimum of 1,000 hours per year to receive a defined benefit pension. The benefit is based on a percentage of your participating life time earnings.
• A defined amount of years of service must be achieved to earn a vested right to an accrued pension. This has been reduced over the years from an initial 20 years of service to the final change to 5 years of service in 1998.

 
The plan permits a vested employee to retire as early as age 55 to the normal retirement date of age 65. You may begin collecting an accrued pension benefit only after the vested employee has terminated employment in the above listed organizations.

Effective July 1, 2024, the Diocese of Pittsburgh agreed to purchase a group annuity contract, for most annuitants receiving less than $250.00 per month, from a subsidiary of The Global Atlantic Financial Group LLC (collectively, Global Atlantic) to secure your pension from the Diocese of Pittsburgh Lay Employees Pension Plan. With this change, the obligation to pay and administer your benefit is transferred to Global Atlantic.
 
Effective January 1, 2025, the Diocese of Pittsburgh agreed to purchase a group annuity contract, for most annuitants receiving less than $1,000.00 per month, from a subsidiary of The Global Atlantic Financial Group LLC (collectively, Global Atlantic) to secure your pension from the Diocese of Pittsburgh Lay Employees Pension Plan. With this change, the obligation to pay and administer your benefit is transferred to Global Atlantic.
 
Effective January 1, 2025, your monthly benefit is paid to you directly by Global Atlantic. The gross amount of the monthly payments you receive from Global Atlantic will be unchanged from the monthly payments you are currently receiving.

Effective May 1, 2026, the Diocese of Pittsburgh agreed to purchase a group annuity contract for all remaining annuitants and those who will be collecting their benefit in the future from a subsidiary of The Global Atlantic Financial Group LLC (collectively, Global Atlantic) to secure your pension from the Diocese of Pittsburgh Lay Employees Pension Plan. With this change, the obligation to pay and administer your benefit is transferred to Global Atlantic.
 
Please contact Global Atlantic with questions on your benefit or notifying them of any changes (i.e. changes to your mailing address or payment methods). We are working closely with Global Atlantic to ensure a seamless transition.