Help Yourself, Help The Planet
A few months ago we offered Participants the ability to receive their EOBs (Explanation of Benefits) electronically. Now, as part of our ongoing modernization process, you can receive your pension statements electronically, too. We hope that everyone will avail themselves of this terrific opportunity.
Why would I want to go paperless?
- The practical reasons are that it saves time, money, clutter, and helps the environment.
- By opting to use electronic delivery of paper documents, you don’t suffer the delay of physical printing, envelope stuffing, and postal delivery. You’ll get your valuable documents more quickly. In addition, as we improve the capabilities of the website, you will be able to see your pension statements updates every day. If there’s a problem, you’ll be able to know about it immediately!
- Many companies are in arrears. Writers can use the reported earnings on the pension statements to check against their actual earnings and make sure they get their proper benefits.
- Mailed pension statements are typically three months out of date, and sometimes more depending on the timing of the point date.
- The PWGA spends in excess of a million dollars a year in postage and printing costs. This is money that can’t go into medical care, pension returns, or lowering premiums. By opting to go paperless, you’re helping the PWGA and helping yourself at the same time.
- For many (most) people, paper accumulates in horrifying piles of “I can’t find what I’m looking for”. Most of us throw away EOBs or other pension-related mailings and then frantically search for the data they contain come tax time. By going electronic, you guarantee that all your relevant documents are in one, easily accessible place.
- The PWGA prints approximately a million pages in a given year. A single tree produces approximately 8,339 pages of copy-grade paper after it has been stripped and pulped. By going paperless, the PWGA could save 120 trees. It’s a small amount relative to the entire country, but the next time you take a walk, count how many trees you see and then think what your walk would look like if those 120 trees weren’t there.
- Your electronic pension statement is mobile compatible. We recognize that many of our Participants use mobile devices like smart phones or tablets to browse the web. All our documents are designed to scale to the size of the screen you’re using. That means your documents will look great whether you’re viewing them on a small phone screen, a tablet, a large desktop monitor, or anything in-between.
How do I Opt-In?
- You log in to your account at www.pwga.org. Click on the image for Go Paperless and you will be presented with the option to electronically receive EOB(s) and Pension Statement(s) (unless you have already opted-in for these). You select either or both, agree to the terms and conditions for each, and that’s it; you’re done.
Once I Opt-In, how does it work?
- Once you elect to receive documents electronically, you will be notified by email every time a new document arrives. You can look at it online, download it to your own machine, view it on your phone, or deal with it at a more convenient time – whichever best suits your needs.
- All your EOBs and Pension Statements are available for download via a secure portion of the PWGA website should you ever want paper copies or should you need to send them to a tax preparer or other financial advisor.
What if I try going paperless and don’t like it?
- It takes only a few clicks to opt-in for paperless delivery. It takes only a few clicks to opt-out if you don’t like it.
What documents can I Opt-In to?
- We started with EOBs (well over 500,000 sheets of paper a year + envelopes) and continuing with Pension Statements, but we’re going to move as much of our documentation and mailings to electronic formats as we can. We hope that in the foreseeable future most – if not all – of our paper documents can be distributed electronically.
As the PWGA endeavors to bring 21st century practices into how we better service your needs, we hope you will join us in our attempts to do more and to do it better.
