What is NEBF?

The National Electrical Benefit Fund (NEBF) is a multi-employer, defined benefit pension plan that provides retirement benefits and related benefits to employees in the electrical industry. The Fund is managed and administered at our Rockville, Maryland office.

A Brief Fund History

• In 1927 delegates to the Convention of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers created the first plan to provide retired workers a pension benefit. Members who had 20 years of service and had reached age 65 received $40 a month in pension benefits.

• NECA and the IBEW reached an agreement in 1946 under which electrical contractors paid 1 percent of gross wages for eligible employees into a new fund—the NECA Pension Trust Benefit Fund, or NEBF.

• In 1946, a full 20 years after the inception of the IBEW members' plan, pensions were raised to $50 per month.

• In 1957 a decision by the National Labor Relations Board led to the IBEW members’ plan and NEBF becoming separate plans.

• A 1964 amendment permitted the recognition of past service credits.

• As of January 1,1966, any participant who had 20 years of covered employment, reached age 65, and retired, was eligible to receive an NEBF pension benefit.

• Early retirement was introduced in 1973 for vested individuals age 62 or older at a reduced amount.

• In 1988 further changes to the Fund were introduced, including 5-year vesting, unreduced early retirement benefits for eligible participants at age 62 or older, 5-year eligibility for disability, and a minimum disability benefit based on a minimum of 20 service credits.

• Also effective in 1988, NEBF retirees were permitted to work less than 40 hours a month in covered employment without a suspension in benefits.

• The "Restated Employees Benefit Agreement and Trust, and Plan of Benefits for the NEBF" was adopted in 1993.

• In 1998 the joint-and-survivor benefit was enhanced to include a “pop up” provision in the event a retiree’s spouse predeceases the participant. In this event, the retiree’s benefit “pops up” to the level it would have been without the joint-and-survivor reduction, effective the first of the month following the spouse’s death.

• Effective July 1, 2001, the basic benefit for new retirees was increased to $32 per month per service credit, and the minimum disability benefit was increased to $640 per month.

• As of December 2006, NEBF had over 481,000 participants.