Equinor Pensjon

Equinor Pensjon has a licence to operate as a pension scheme and is supervised by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway. The purpose of the pension scheme is to provide retirement and disability pensions for members of the scheme, and survivor’s pension to spouse, registered partner, cohabitant and children.

Equinor Pensjon operates from its offices in Stavanger. Equinor Pensjon has no employees and purchases all services from service providers. Services related to daily management and administration are purchased from Equinor ASA. Management services are provided by Equinor Asset Management AS. Storebrand Pensjonstjenester AS provides services related to processing of applications and disbursements and maintaining its register of members, as well as actuary services.

Equinor Pensjon is managed by a board of eight members. Five members are appointed by Equinor ASA, of which one is an external board member. The three remaining members are elected by members of the pension scheme.

The pension fund has no employees and has not integrated sustainability risk in the requirements for remuneration schemes. Remuneration to the Board of Directors is determined independently of the pension fund's results and risk-taking. Section 15-10 of the Financial Institutions Regulations on remuneration schemes, applies correspondingly to our suppliers in connection with outsourcing.

Closed pension scheme

The pension scheme was closed on 1 January 2015. Employees born before 1963 (onshore) and before 1965 (offshore), who were employed at that time, still have their retirement pension saving in the pension scheme. All other employees and personnel who were employed after 1 January 2015, are saving in the defined contribution pension scheme.

Those who received disability pension per 1 April 2015 may still have their retirement pension saving in the pension scheme if they are still receiving disability pension. Persons reported fit after a period of disability may be transferred to the defined contribution pension scheme if they are born before 1963 (onshore)/1965 (offshore). Employees who have returned from non-statutory leave have been entered in the defined contribution pension scheme.

Disability and child’s pension

All employees are covered by disability and child’s pensions in Equinor Pensjon.

From the year members turn 58, they will receive an annual overview from the pension scheme of all estimated pensions and drawing options from the age of 62. A separate information letter is sent to all members the year before they turn 62.

Retirement pension

Retirement pension from Equinor ASA is an addition to the retirement pension from the Norwegian National Insurance scheme, the contractual early retirement scheme (AFP) and any pension entitlement earned with other employers.

The retirement pension from the Equinor Pensjon scheme allows flexible drawing from the age of 62 and is for life.
Retirement pension from Equinor Pensjon is for life, which, together with a standardized national insurance pension, amounts to 66% of the pensionable salary, if drawn from age 67. A service period of minimum 30 years in a full-time position is required to achieve full pension, and you must also be employed in the company until you reach the earning age (age 67 for onshore employees and age 65 for offshore employees). When retirement pension is calculated, an estimated standardized national insurance is deducted. If an employee starts drawing pension before reaching the earning age, the pension is recalculated, and the annual amount will be lower. A cost is also added to the recalculation.

You will find a detailed overview of your pension by logging in to your page on Storebrand.no.

Disability pension

All employees of Equinor ASA, irrespective of pension scheme for your retirement pension saving, are covered by a disability pension scheme through the Equinor pension scheme. If you are on sick leave for more than 12 months, you may be entitled to a disability benefit from both the National Insurance scheme (work assessment allowance or disability insurance) and from Equinor’s pension scheme (disability pension). As a general rule, we follow the resolution adopted by the National Insurance scheme. In the event of a low degree of disability (20% – 45%), the pension scheme may grant a disability pension on an independent basis.

A disability pension is not granted if the disability is caused by illness, injury or a defect that the employee was suffering from or aware of at the time of employment with Equinor (and was entered in the Equinor Pensjon scheme) and led to incapacity for work for the first two years of employment (restraint clause).

Survivor pension

If a member or a pensioner of the pension scheme dies, survivors may be entitled to disbursement of pension. Those who may be entitled to a pension are:

• Surviving spouse/cohabitant*/partner
• Divorced spouse**
• Children under the age of 21 who the diseased supported or had a legal obligation to support

*Cohabitant is defined as a cohabitant who shared residence and children with the member at the time of death. The same applies to a cohabitant who the member lived with in a marriage-like relationship at the time of death, when it is proved that the relationship has lasted without interruptions for the last five years before the member died, and there were no circumstances that would prevent a legal marriage from being entered into. Former cohabitants are not entitled to a survivor pension.

**A divorced spouse must meet the requirements of the marriage legislation. This means that the divorced spouse must have been at least 45 years old at the time of divorce, the marriage must have lasted for at least 10 years, and the divorced spouse must not have remarried. Reference is made to the Marriage Act.

A child’s pension from Equinor Pensjon amounts to, for the youngest child, 50% of a retirement pension as per regulations of the defined benefit pension scheme – which is 66% of the pensionable income minus a standardized national insurance.

If there are several children, the child’s pension for each of the remaining children is calculated at 50% of the child’s pension for the youngest child. The total child’s pension to be disbursed must be distributed equally on all the children.

For children between the age of 18 and 21 the child’s pension is doubled. This additional child’s pension is only distributed on the children of this age group.

If the diseased had a paid-up policy in Equinor Pensjon, survivors may be entitled to a pension from the paid-up policy if all terms and conditions are met.

Continuation coverage

If you leave the company, or you are granted non-statutory leave and withdrawn from the pension scheme, you have a right to continue the disability and child’s pension schemes from the Equinor pension scheme through a continuation coverage. If you want this insurance, you must order it at least 6 months from the time you are withdrawn from the pension scheme.

Paid-up policies

If you are a former employee of Equinor ASA and you have been a member of Equinor Pensjon and left the company after 1 July 2013, you may have a paid-up policy in Equinor Pensjon.

Former employees who left Equinor ASA before 30 June 2013 have their paid-up policy in Nordea Liv AS, as Equinor Pensjon, in the period before 1 July 2013, had an agreement with Nordea Liv on transfer and issue of paid-up policies.

Employees whose pension scheme was changed and who were part of the group of employees that was transferred to the defined contribution scheme (1.4.2015) received a paid-up policy for accrued rights in the defined benefit scheme. A detailed overview of retirement pension, paid-up policy and any rights certificate and transition certificate can be found by logging into "your page" on Storebrand.no.

You will find an overview of all your paid-up policies on www.norskpensjon.no.

Application for drawing pension

Storebrand Pensjonstjenester AS provides services related to processing of applications, disbursements and updating of registers of members, as well as actuary services.

If you want to start disbursement of retirement pension, you will find a pension calculator and an application form on Storebrand.no.

Automatic disbursements will start when you reach the age of 75. All other start-up dates are based on application.

Pensioners who are receiving disbursement of their retirement pension from Equinor’s pension schemes can log in to Storebrand.no to get an overview of current pension disbursements and disbursement statement.

Travel insurance, Gjensidige

Employees and retirement and disability pensioners in Equinor ASA are covered by the company’s travel insurance provided by Gjensidige. Survivors of diseased member are not covered.

Employer’s liability insurance, Gjensidige

Equinor’s liability insurance is provided by Gjensidige.

The EU has prepared detailed technical criteria for the sectors and economic activities that can be defined as sustainable (the taxonomy regulation). Equinor Pension is investing responsibly based on the principles described above, however the company has not set sustainability goals based on the EU’s definitions. According to article 7 of the taxonomy regulation, we must therefore explain that the relevant economic products’ underlying investments are not taking the EU criteria for environmentally sustainable economic activities into account.