April 2019 Edition

At Desjardins, our philosophy of social responsibility influences everything we do, including our culture.

In an open letter External link. Opens in a new window. recently published in multiple French-language news outlets, Guy Cormier, President and CEO of Desjardins Group, wrote about the commitments we’ve made and the concrete actions we’ve been taking, for several years now, in the fight against climate change.

Some highlights of his message:

• Desjardins’ steadfast objective is to reduce our carbon footprint and increase our investment in renewable energy
• Among financial institutions, Desjardins’ exposure to fossil fuels is one of the lowest
• The path we’ve chosen may not be seen as bold right now, but we believe it will be the most effective one in the long run: supporting our members in the transition to green energy

To give our members and clients a more detailed overview of our commitments and initiatives, we’ve been publishing an annual Social and Cooperative Responsibility Report External link. Opens in a new window. since 2004. Read it to see how we incorporate our commitments into our processes, procedures and the way we work with our partners. You’ll also learn how we contribute to the well-being of people and communities.

A number of studies, including a 2018 survey External link. Opens in a new window. by the Canadian Payroll Association, have identified how employees are increasingly open to, or expecting, the support of their employers when it comes to their financial wellness. In this Benefits Canada article External link. Opens in a new window., we learn how Riley Pye, Vice President at JD Irving Ltd., has leveraged this interest and collaborated with Desjardins experts to maximize the benefit of their workplace savings plan. Thanks to a comprehensive education campaign, plan members were successfully sensitized to the importance of establishing a retirement plan and using the right tools to get there.

In recent years, a new generation of retirement planning tool has emerged – focused on translating projected lump-sum assets into anticipated retirement income and providing a more holistic assessment of an employee’s financial situation. Desjardins’s Maria-José Perea, Director, Business Solutions, describes how our On Target Retirement online goal tracker can help plan members better gauge their optimal savings level, by taking their income sources beyond group savings, as well as their risk tolerance, into account.

She also explains how Desjardins’ retirement goal tracker helps address concerns around financial literacy; the likelihood of reaching a given rate of return is upfront and centre and plan members are encouraged to view underlying assumptions. Furthermore, the tool allows plan members to view the impact of changes in their savings decisions on retirement income. Our friendly personalized videos have also proven to be an effective way of addressing these concerns, by sharing next best actions across multiple devices, be it desktop, tablet or mobile.

The fact that close to a third of J.D. Irving employees are actively using On Target Retirement is not only a reflection of its usefulness and accessibility, but also an illustration of how a supportive plan sponsor can positively impact member engagement. We’re committed to evolving our suite of educational tools to help your plan members establish, and follow, a roadmap to reaching their financial goals. You can look forward to the launch of our fourth educational video on retirement planning in the coming month.

In April 2018, we launched our Financial Wellness Centre on dfs.ca/participant. Under that section, plan members can find solutions to help plan their financial future and take ownership of their financial wellness.

For us, financial wellness means peace of mind. We want to help our plan members get to a place where they know they’ll be able to cope with life’s surprises and enjoy an enriching life.

There’s lots more in store!

We have a lot of exciting things planned for the Financial Wellness Centre this year. Stay tuned!

The origin story

Several years ago, Desjardins Insurance’s group retirement savings team started making a conscious effort to clarify and simplify the financial information we give our plan members. Every day, we strive to give them all the information they need in a clear and understandable format—so they can spend less time deciphering financial jargon and more time planning for their retirement.

And the Financial Wellness Centre was a natural next step. Because our plan members’ financial wellness is what matters to us.

In the February edition of The Essential, we summarized the measures we have taken to safeguard your plan members’ personal information. We’d like to now remind you how you can protect this information when communicating with us.

What is personal information?

It’s information about a person that can be used to identity them or tell them apart from other people. Examples of personal information include:

• Name, date of birth, social insurance number and marital status
• Mailing address, email and phone number
• Employer’s name, hire date, termination date and salary
• Plan membership date, contribution amount, plan member statement and beneficiary’s name
• User ID and password
• Legal documents (will, marriage certificate, etc.)

How to share personal information with us

We recommend using one of the following options:

• Online, through electronic data transfer (contact your administrator to implement that solution)
• Phone
• Email – be sure to enter your group number in the subject line and password-protect any attachments containing personal information
• Certified mail or courier

IMPORTANT: Send only the information that’s required to process the request.

For any questions or to obtain secure access to the Plan sponsor services website, please call Plan Sponsor Services at 1-888-510-4762 This link will launch your default phone software., from 8 am to 5 pm (ET), Monday through Friday.

What’s the difference between a retiring allowance and severance pay?

A retiring allowance is paid to employees in recognition of years of service when they retire. Severance pay is paid to employees when they lose their job. Here are some questions and answers explaining how to make these types of contributions.

Question: “An employee with unused sick leave and vacation credits will be retiring. Do I include them in his retiring allowance?”

Answer: Only his unused sick leave is included. Salary, bonuses, overtime and vacation days not taken before retirement are excluded. For other exclusions, visit the Canada Revenue Agency website External link. Opens in a new window..

Question: “An employee wants to deposit her retiring allowance into her group TFSA1. Can I do that?”

Answer: No. Retiring allowances and severance pay can only be deposited into a DC plan, SPP or group RRSP2.

Question: “An employee is leaving the company and wants his severance pay deposited into his RRSP. Do I need to make at-source deductions?”

Answer: No. You don’t need to make any deduction for direct transfers to a plan. However, a withholding tax will apply if a withdrawal is made. This type of transfer doesn’t affect the employee’s RRSP contribution room.

Question: “How should I make this plan contribution?”

Answer: You need to remit a separate contribution from your regular remittance and call Plan Sponsor Services to let your plan administrator know that it’s a retiring allowance or severance pay.

For more information about retiring allowances and severance pay, visit the CRA website External link. Opens in a new window. and review our memory aid (PDF, 194 KB) Opens in a new window..

Whether you’re using the contribution remittance interface or the standard file, incorrect or missing information can cause error messages when making your contribution remittances.

Here are two common situations and their solutions:

Contribution remittance interface

Situation: You pre-enrolled a new participant and entered a contribution remittance and then got an error message.

Solution: Don’t worry! Our system may not be up-to-date. Wait 24 hours before doing anything. If both the pre-enrolment and contribution remittance aren’t in the system the next day, contact your plan administrator.

Standard file

Situation: You sent the standard file and got the following message:

Solution: Don’t worry! The message tells you exactly where the mistakes are.

Simply follow these steps:

1. In the Excel file, correct the line indicated in the message
2. Rename the file by adding an underscore R at the end of the original name (e.g., G00123456_COT_20140725_R)
3. Submit the file the same way you did the first time

Please note: The new file will automatically overwrite the previous one.

IMPORTANT: If you get another error message, call your plan administrator.

If you think you have made an error

To make corrections to amounts, contribution types, periods or other information, or if you think there was a problem with the data transfer, call your plan administrator as soon as possible.

Mirova informed us that Bertrand Rocher was hired as a senior credit analyst. He will cover the industrial and utilities sectors. Mr. Rocher started his career in 1997 as a risk analyst at KBC Bank and was then a sell side credit analyst covering various industrial companies for CA Indosuez/ Calyon (now CAcib) and Fortis, in Madrid, Brussels and Paris. He joined Ostrum AM in 2010, where he led a small team of analysts in charge of cyclical issuers. In 2017, he moved back to the sell side, at Natixis CIB, to cover the automotive and general industrials sectors. He ranked second in the Euromoney 2018 survey for both categories.

Mirova added more resources with the hiring of Nelson Ribeirinho as a credit analyst on financial institutions within the Mirova Fixed Income team. He began his career in corporate investment banking as a covered bonds/SSA strategist before taking over the position of lead sell-side analyst on banks, at Natixis. Ultimately, he worked as a vice president – financial institution specialist while delivering expertise on a broad spectrum of hot topics ranging from regulation, capital structure analysis and rating methodologies, to sector in-depth fundamentals reviews.

Fiera Capital announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Integrated Asset Management (IAM) which adds further depth to the Private Alternative Investments offering through the addition of IAM’s Private Debt and Real Estate strategies.