Joining the Plan

Eligibility
Employees will be eligible to join the Plan on the first day of their employment with you, provided they:

are at least age 18;
are under age 60; and
have Caymanian or permanent residency status.

Employees who meet the age requirements but who do not have Caymanian or permanent residency status, principally expatriates, will be eligible to join the Plan once they’ve worked in the Cayman Islands continuously for at least nine months.

Once an employee meets the eligibility requirements, he/she must join the Plan.

Providing new employees with pension information
As soon as an employee meets the eligibility requirements, you must provide him/her with the Silver Thatch:

The law requires that you give an employee a copy of the Member Handbook within 30 days of him/her meeting the eligibility requirements. (The employer must complete the bottom section of the Member Enrollment Form confirming that the employee has received a copy of the handbook.)

Enrolling an employee
Employees who are eligible to join the Plan must complete the Member Enrollment Form and return it to you. Please be sure:

the employee completes, signs and returns the form; and
that you sign the Employer Confirmation Section at the bottom of the form.

Please attach the completed Member Enrollment Form to your next Contributions Input Form (see Remitting contributions). The client services agent will, in turn, provide the employee with a member number. The employee should write this number on all correspondence with the client services agent.

If the employee wishes to make additional voluntary contributions, he or she must also complete the Additional Voluntary Contribution Form. This form is used to indicate:

how much the employee wants to contribute in AVCs; and
how the money should be invested.

The employee should return the completed form to you. You, in turn, should make a copy for your files and send the original to the client services agent. You should also begin deducting the specified contributions from the employee’s pay, starting with the next full pay period.

Enrolling employees who transfer from another Silver Thatch employer
If an employee transfers to your employment from another employer that participates in Silver Thatch, membership in the Pension Plan will continue uninterrupted and he/she will retain the same Silver Thatch account number.

Even though the employee is already a member of the Plan, you must still get them to fill out a Member Enrollment Form. There is a spot on the form asking if the employee is already enrolled in Silver Thatch. The employee should indicate yes, provide the former employer’s name and, if possible, his/her Silver Thatch account number.

The employee will also need to fill out a new Additional Voluntary Contribution Form if he/she wishes to start or continue making additional voluntary contributions.