December 2019 Edition

The Canadian Cooperathon External link. Opens in a new window. wrapped up on November 20. After 25 days of an immersive experience, divided into 5 sprints, Plakk took the grand prize in Canada. Plakk’s platform helps doctors and researchers determine the likelihood that a patient will suffer a heart attack or stroke based on arterial plaque. It’s a great example of an innovation that could be used to improve the well-being of the entire population.

In the Finance category, the Placify application stood out for its approach to testing tenants’ interest in personalized recommendations. This innovative idea could improve access to real estate investments for more Canadians. A financial reputation platform (a financial portrait analysis tool) and a platform for predicting property values were also in the running. Over the next few months, Cooperathon participants will receive assistance that will enable them to explore the feasibility of bringing their ideas to market.

For its 30-year anniversary, the French-language sister publication of Benefits Canada, Avantages magazine, is publishing a series of articles called Thirty-somethings. The concept is interesting: two industry experts from two different generations share their perspectives. One has 30 years of experience while the other is 30 years old…

In the November issue External link in French only. Opens in a new window. (French only), Jo-Anne Jodoin, Business Development Manager, and Ghiwa Nakhlé, Business Strategies Development Senior Advisor at Desjardins Insurance, talk about their career paths and how pension plans and savings concepts have changed over time.

Over the course of their discussion, they examine various issues that raise questions about the idea of traditional retirement. For example, should we wait until retirement is just around the corner to dip into our retirement savings? What about short- and medium-term savings needs? How can we adapt to rising life expectancy? And how can we help plan members who are ready to use the money they’ve set aside?

"Jo-Anne and Ghiwa manage to be both optimists and realists at the same time—and they aren’t afraid to talk about their industry’s success stories and challenges." This quote perfectly sums up the article. The women agree on many points and demonstrate Desjardins’s will to educate, support and advise plan members using a people-focused approach and innovative solutions.

Winter is the perfect time for rest and reflection, so we’re running a contest to encourage your group retirement savings plan members to start the year on the right foot. To enter, all they have to do is visit our Wellness Centre at dfs.ca/participant between January 1 and March 31, 2020.

Not only will they find everything they need for a brighter financial future—they’ll also be entered to win $5,000 in cash or as a deposit to their group retirement savings plan!¹

You can use these posters to promote the contest:

11 x 17 poster (PDF, 1.02 MB) Opens in a new window

8.5 x 11 poster (PDF, 705 KB) Opens in a new window

About our Wellness Centre

This section of our member site at dfs.ca/participant is perfect to:

• Establish a savings plan and learn all about investing
• Discover how to draw up a budget and manage debt and credit
• Understand why insurance means peace of mind

For more details about the contest, read the full contest rules and regulations (PDF, 157 KB) Opens in a new window.

If your plan setup includes quarterly or semi-annual financial statements, and your plan members have chosen to receive their statements in Electronic and paper format (versus Electronic or Paper), the year-end statement will only be available in paper format and will be mailed to the plan member’s address. The other 2019 statements are only available electronically.

To inform plan members of this situation, we’ll post a message at dfs.ca/participant in the My statements and documents section under Financial statements.

For more information, please call Plan Sponsor Services at 1-888-510-4762  This link will launch your default phone software. or your dedicated plan administrator. Your plan members can call our Customer Contact Centre at 1-800-968-3587 This link will launch your default phone software..

While we don’t recommend making cash withdrawals from registered plans (RRSPs, VRSPs, DC plans or SPPs) because the whole point is to save for retirement, plan members can make withdrawals if they need to (if permitted by the plan). For the withdrawal income to count towards the 2019 fiscal year, plan members need to take certain deadlines into account, depending on how they make their withdrawal request:

• Online (preferred approach): Plan members have until 4:00 pm (ET) on December 31, 2019, to request a withdrawal online (if permitted by the plan).
• By phone: Plan members have until 4:00 pm (ET) on December 31, 2019, to call our Customer Contact Centre to request a withdrawal.
• By email, fax or mail: Plan members must send us their withdrawal request by December 20, 2019.²

If plan members have any questions, they can call our Customer Contact Centre at 1-800-968-3587 This link will launch your default phone software., Monday to Friday, from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm (ET). One of our agents will be happy to help them.

With the end of the year coming up fast, we wanted to remind you to get your remittances in by the deadline so contributions are included in 2019. Plan members who want to make lump-sum contributions need to log in to their accounts and make their contribution by the deadlines below.

* IMPORTANT: For RRSP/VRSP contributions to be included on the receipt for the period of March 2, 2019, to December 31, 2019, we must receive your remittances by December 24, 2019.

** RRSP/VRSP contributions received after December 31 will be included on the receipt for the first 60 days of 2020 (January 1, 2020, to March 2, 2020). This receipt can be used for 2019 tax returns.

How to make a lump-sum contribution

Your plan members have 2 options for making lump-sum contributions:

Online

• Go to dfs.ca/participant and click Go
• Log in
• On the home page, select My transactions > Managing my account > Contribute
• In the Lump-sum and recurring contributions section, select New contribution

OR

By cheque

• Mail a cheque made out to Desjardins Financial Security to the address below. They must be sure to write their group number and employee or plan member number on the back.

  Desjardins Insurance
  Group Retirement Savings
  PO BOX 1355 STN Desjardins
  Montreal QC  H5B 1C4

With tax season just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about producing your employees’ T4s and RL-1s.

Please refer to the table below to see how to calculate the total amounts to include on these slips.

How to calculate the total amounts

Include all contributions made between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019.

Registered Pension Plans (RPP): SPP and DC³

DPSPs (Deferred Profit Sharing Plan)

To learn more, go to Employers’ Guide - Filing the T4 Slip and Summary External link. Opens in a new window. on the CRA website.

Contribution limits

DPSP: The total must be the lesser of 18% of an employee’s current annual compensation External link. Opens in a new window. and the maximum annual contribution allowed under a DPSP.

RRP: The total must be the lesser of 18% of an employee’s current annual compensation and the maximum contribution allowed under a DC for a given year.

You can find the annual contribution limits on the CRA website External link. Opens in a new window..

The information included in this article is intended for general information only and should not be considered as tax advice. While reasonable steps have been taken to verify its content, Desjardins makes no representations or guarantees concerning the accuracy, completeness or currency of this information.

Here are our business hours for the holiday season:

Plan sponsor services

Customer Contact Centre (CCC)

Transactions submitted after 4 pm (ET) or on a holiday will be processed the next business day.

Scheduled RRIF and LIF payments that fall on a holiday will be issued the next business day.

We’re pleased to announce that a new fund was added to our group retirement savings platform on October 31, 2019. This fund, which is described below, enhances our foreign fixed income offering.

PIMCO Monthly Income Fund

This fund is actively managed and aims to maximize current income consistent with preservation of capital and prudent investment management, by investing in a diversified portfolio of non-Canadian dollar fixed income instruments of varying maturities, including high yield and emerging market securities. The fund seeks to maintain a high and consistent stream of income by investing in a broad array of fixed income sectors and utilizing income-efficient implementation strategies. Any capital appreciation generally arises from decreases in interest rates or better credit fundamentals for a particular sector or security.

For more information about this new fund, please contact your client relationship manager.

We’re pleased to announce the addition of the PIMCO Private Income Fund to our Multi-Manager Private Credit Fund. This addition aims to increase the fund’s long-term expected return while diversifying the underlying portfolio. The initial commitment to this new fund, for which the target is set at 50% of the Multi-Manager Private Credit Fund, was made as of October 31. Following this addition, the target allocation to Canadian commercial mortgages (managed by Addenda) moved to 30%, while that to U.S. bank loans (managed by AlphaFixe) moved to 10%. The fund’s exposure to Canadian corporate bonds (managed by Canso) was replaced by a target exposure of 10% to Canadian short-term bonds (managed by Desjardins Global Asset Management) in order to ensure sufficient liquidity at the fund level.

The PIMCO Private Income Fund aims to generate returns comprised predominantly of income by investing primarily in loans and other cash-flow producing private assets. It primarily seeks to invest in individual income streams where risk of capital loss is deemed low or in pools of loans where returns adjusted for expected losses are attractive. The fund’s investment strategy is designed to facilitate the fluid deployment and redeployment of capital across credit sectors: corporate, residential real estate, commercial real estate and specialty finance. The manager looks to avoid sectors that are crowded, while focusing instead on sectors where credit supply has temporarily decreased or where barriers to entry exist.

About the Multi-Manager Private Credit Fund

This fund is composed of a portfolio of underlying funds that seeks to maximize current income while limiting interest rate sensitivity. It invests in different Canadian and foreign fixed income funds, primarily targeting private strategies that can cover corporate lending, consumer lending, real estate debt and infrastructure debt, as well as other lower-liquidity assets such as bank loans. The fund will also invest a limited portion of its assets in publicly traded fixed income securities.

For more information about these new funds, please contact your client relationship manager.

Baillie Gifford

Baillie Gifford has announced that Richard Sneller would be retiring at the end of April 2020 after almost 26 years with the firm. Until then, Mr. Sneller will continue to be fully involved in all of his usual activities, including his role in the Emerging Market Concentrated strategy, in which Desjardins invests with the DGIA Emerging Markets Fund. Since October 30, this strategy has been managed by a Portfolio Construction Group comprising Will Sutcliffe, Richard Sneller and Andrew Stobart. Starting May 1, 2020, it will be co-managed by Will Sutcliffe and Andrew Stobart. Mr. Sutcliffe will become the head of the wider Emerging Markets team starting May 1, 2020.

CI Financial Corp. (CI) and WisdomTree Investments, Inc.

CI Financial Corp and WisdomTree Investments, Inc. have announced an agreement under which CI will purchase all of the issued and outstanding shares of WisdomTree Asset Management Canada, Inc., the investment fund manager of WisdomTree’s Canadian exchange-traded funds. Upon completion of the transaction, CI will add 14 Toronto Stock Exchange-listed ETFs with $958 million in assets (as of November 4, 2019) to its current ETF family.

Franklin Templeton

We have been informed of the departure of a resource within the Franklin Templeton Global Real Asset Fund team, namely Julie Donegan, who was a backup Portfolio Manager of U.S. real estate investments. She was based in California, while the main Portfolio Manager is based in NY.