The time has come for one of your staff members to cash out of your group insurance plan

The steps involved in the payment of the group insurance benefits

1. Your staff member has had contact with the ​Federal Pensions Service (FPS) to confirm his retirement date

There'​s no need for your staff member to file a request with the FPS​ directly if:

• he will be retiring upon reaching statutory retirement age (currently 65, to be raised to 66 as of 2025 and 67 as of 2030)
  and
• he worked as a salaried employee or on a self-employed basis in Belgium
  and
• he currently resides in Belgium

If your staff member fulfils the three criteria listed above, the FPS will contact him directly to set the official departure date. In all other cases, your staff member will have to file a request with the FPS.

2. The FPS will notify AG of the statutory retirement date

The FPS will then provide AG with all the necessary information about your staff member so that we can start the process of releasing the group insurance entitlements.

As an employer, you don't need to send us anything at this stage.

   
3. AG will send your staff member a letter outlining the practical details for collecting his group insurance entitlements

Your employee will receive a letter from us covering all of the plans he has with AG (i.e. both active and dormant plans) at the earliest two and a half months before his retirement date. In this letter, we will request certain types of information such as his bank account number.

Depending on your staff member's individual circumstances, he will also have to fill out various forms such as:

Request for payment of your supplementary pension benefits
Attestation of Professional Activity*
Outstanding balance on mortgage loan
Payment of group insurance benefits in a foreign country
Confirmation of Bank Account Holder Details​​

The plan participant can provide us with this information in the following two ways:

• Via the My Global Benefits platform: this platform is by far the easiest and most efficient option
• if your don’t have My Global Benefits, in ordinary paper form or via e-mail

At this time, your staff member will also be able to choose between collecting the benefits as a one-time cash lump-sum payout or as a regular annuity.

Interested in helping your staff members with the formalities? Go to My Global Benefits for more information.

4. AG starts the process to release the supplementary pension benefits

Once we have all the information we need, we will double-check it and, in some cases, ask for additional details.

If we receive all of the correct information three weeks before the retirement date, we will pay the proceeds into the plan participant's account in the month following his departure date.

If your employee chooses to collect his benefits as a single lump-sum payout (the most commonly selected option), we will send him a Notice of Settlement with the details of the amount paid. If, on the other hand, your employee has opted to convert the benefits into a regular annuity, he will receive a Certificate of Annuity specifying the annuity value to be paid.

For more information on the payment process, go to My Global Benefits.

5. AG sends your employee a tax statement​

In the year following the payment of the proceeds, we will send the plan participant a tax statement that he can use to fill out hisincome tax declaration.

And what happens with hospitalisation insurance?

Once your staff members leave the company, they automatically lose the right to their corporate-sponsored hospital plan. However, under the Verwilghen Act, they have the right to continue this coverage on an individual basis​. As an employer, you are legally required to disclose this information to your staff members.

They will be able to continue their coverage, with no medical formalities to complete, if they have been continuously enrolled in a corporate-sponsored hospital plan for at least two years.

To be eligible for continuation coverage, your employees will need to apply by the prescribed deadline (i.e. within 30 days of their departure date). To do so, both you and the employee will have to sign this document, which you as employer will then need to send to AG.