LAPP – Local Authorities Pension Plan
Alberta
Full pension and early retirement
You get a full pension, with no reduction, at the first of these:
- Age 65
- 85 points
Points are your age plus your years of service.
- Earliest retirement
- Age 55
- Retiring earlier
- 3% a year reduction
- Pension formula
- 1.4% of your average pay up to the CPP earnings limit (YMPE) and 2% above it, for each year of service
- Most service counted
- 35 years
- Bridge benefit
- None
- Increases after you retire
- 60% of inflation
What retiring early costs: an example
Someone joins at 35, is paid $85,000 a year and works until each age below, so their years of service are their age less 35. Amounts are a year, before tax, in today's dollars.
| Retire at | Years of service | Reduction | Pension |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 20 | 30% | $18,000 |
| 56 | 21 | 24% | $20,500 |
| 57 | 22 | 18% | $23,200 |
| 58 | 23 | 12% | $26,000 |
| 59 | 24 | 6% | $29,000 |
| 60 | 25 | None | $32,100 |
Retiring at 55 instead of 60 costs twice: 5 fewer years of service, and the reduction on what is left. Early retirement reduction explains both.
What to copy from your paperwork
To use your own numbers in the income timeline:
LAPP's Pension Projection, in Your Pension Profile, gives your pension for the retirement dates you choose: enter two or more, including your first with no reduction. If it lets you add pay raises, leave them at 0%: this tool takes the amounts as today's dollars. Your Pension Highlights statement shows the pension you have earned so far, which works too: choose 'The pension I've earned so far'. Check whether amounts are by the month or the year, and set Enter amounts to match.
LAPP's own estimator: Pension Projection, in Your Pension Profile.
Where these rules come from
- How is my pension calculated? · LAPP
- When can I retire? and Early retirement benefits · LAPP
- Cost-of-living increases · LAPP
- Last reviewed October 20, 2026.
These rules are simplified. Your plan's own estimate is the one to rely on; see the disclaimer.