Hopefully, you’ve heard from us before about a great tool you can find at www.benefitsaccess.org for understanding your retirement. The Retirement Projection Tool is one of our favorite features on the website. It was temporarily unavailable while Wespath integrated the new Compass retirement plan, which will start on January 1, 2026. However, it has been up and running again since earlier this year.
This tool enables you to estimate your monthly pension payout when you retire. There are a number of factors that you can adjust including your age at retirement, housing costs, the percentage of your current income you want to replace in retirement, and many more. After entering all your specific information, you can run the projection.
It’s a great tool to see where you stand right now as you prepare for retirement. While the numbers might not be entirely accurate when you’re younger, as you near retirement, they will give you a clearer idea of your position and whether you may need to use the last few years of your ministry to catch up and be fully prepared for retirement.
We encourage you to set up your Benefits Access account today and then run a Retirement Projection. It’s simple to do:
- Log in to Benefits Access.
- From the Dashboard, click on Retirement at the top center.
- Once on the Retirement Page, click Accounts on the top left side.
- This gives you a dropdown menu, and on the right side of that dropdown, you’ll see Retirement Projection Tools.
- Just beneath that, click Retirement Benefits Projection.
- From there, you’re on your way. Answer their questions and run your projection.
We say it’s easy, but six steps (just to get started) may seem daunting. So here’s the great news: on July 22, Wespath launched a new feature in Benefits Access that allows you to send a secure message to a Wespath team member. So, even if you get stuck, you can reach out for help.
And, as always, if you have questions, you can also reach out to us in the Benefits Office.