The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) offers regular virtual pension briefings aimed at fostering better communication and engagement with its global clientele. The Pension Townhall sessions, launched in 2024, provide a platform for staff of the UN system, beneficiaries, and retirees to gain a deeper understanding of their Fund participation, pension rights, useful pension tools, and key pension processes. The sessions are held monthly with open access, meaning no pre-registration is required. You can simply connect at the time of the session via the link sent to you by email or available on the UNJSPF Pension Townhalls webpage.

The initiative has been met with remarkable success, with over 20,000 UNJSPF members joining the live sessions and more than 25,000 views of the recorded sessions since the initiative started. 

The townhalls cover a range of topics, including pension essentials for participants, separation and pre-retirement essentials, pension payment and two-track essentials, and pension essentials for retirees and beneficiaries.

Empowering clients with knowledge

The primary goal of these sessions is to ensure that all clients have access to essential pension information, so they are well-informed about their pension-related rights and options, as well as the tools available to them. By offering these sessions in both English and French, the UNJSPF ensures that language barriers do not hinder access to vital information. The sessions are designed to be interactive, allowing participants to ask questions via the Q&A feature and receive real-time answers from UNJSPF pension experts.

How to join and how to prepare

For more information, like future dates and topics, and to access the recordings of past sessions, visit the UNJSPF Pension Townhall Sessions page. UNJSPF members are encouraged to come prepared by accessing their UNJSPF Member Self-Service Account (MSS), where they can download their most recent Annual Pension Statement under the ‘Documents’ tab and run an estimate of future entitlements under the ‘Estimates’ tab. We also encourage you to have your most recent pay slip at hand during the sessions. Having these documents ready will allow you to make the most of these sessions.

A look ahead

Building on the success of the 2024 sessions, the UNJSPF continues this initiative in 2025, with monthly Pension Townhalls scheduled to address a variety of topics. This ongoing effort underscores the Fund’s commitment to transparency and client engagement. Recordings and presentations of past and future sessions will continue to be accessible online, ensuring that all members can stay informed, even if they are unable to attend the live events.

The Fund plans to extend its offerings of pension outreach this year, by also offering shorter info sessions – so called ‘Pension Chats’ – that will focus on very specific pension topics of key interest to Fund members. These sessions will be moderated, and they will be advertized and offered in the same manner as the Pension Townhalls.

Stay tuned for more updates and upcoming sessions that will further enhance your understanding of the UNJSPF and its offerings.