Retirement savings plans

Choosing a group retirement savings plan

As an employer, you know how important it is to choose the right retirement savings plan or retirement income plan. But where do you begin? Start by identifying your needs and those of your employees, then check out the tables below to see which plan is right for you.

Retirement savings plans

To help your employees save.

What do you want to do?	Contribute to your employees' retirement plan	Offer your employees accumulated funds exclusively for their retirement	Increase your contributions as your employees increase theirs	Contribute only if your company makes a profit	Tie contributions to employee productivity or job performance	Allow your contributions to be vested immediately*
Volontary Retirement Savings Plan (VRSP)	Optional	Yes, employers contributions	Possible	No	No	Yes
Group Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA)	Optional	No	Yes	No	Possible	Yes
Group Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP)	Optional	No	Yes	No	Possible	Yes
Deferred Profit Sharing Plan (DPSP)	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Defined Contribution Pension Plan (DCPP)	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Up to the employer
Individual Pension Plan (IPP)	Yes	Yes	No	No	N/A	Yes
Simplified Pension Plan (SPP)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

* In all provinces, employer contributions to an RRSP or a TFSA can be vested immediately. In Quebec, the same applies towards DCPPs and SPPs. In the other provinces, it's up to the employer to decide how long employees will have to wait for employer contributions to a DCPP to be vested (generally 2 years or less).

Our group RRSPs can include LIRA and locked-in RRSP provisions that would apply to any employees transferring locked-in amounts from a DCPP.

* Other considerations apply. Refer to the specific pages for each type of retirement savings plan for more information.

Retirement income plans

To convert the money in a retirement savings plan into retirement income

What do you want to do?	Where are the funds coming from?
Offer your retirees a group Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF)	RRSP, DPSP, SPP, DCPP, IPP
Offer your retirees a group Life Income Fund (LIF)	DCPP, SPP, IPP, LIRA, locked-in RRSP
Purchase an annuity contract to offer your retirees annuity income	DCPP, DPSP, IPP, RRSP, SPP, TFSA, LIRA, locked-in RRSP

Other considerations apply. Refer to the specific pages for each type of retirement income plan for more information.

Not sure which retirement savings or retirement income plan is right for you? Check out the Retirement savings plan table and the Retirement income plan table.