November 2019 Edition

You may have seen in the news that Quebec's provincial police informed Desjardins of new developments in their investigation into the privacy breach that was announced on June 20.

It appears that the privacy breach has affected the data of 4.2 million individual members who do their banking with Desjardins in Quebec and Ontario.

As a reminder, this situation only involves members who use Desjardins banking services in Quebec and Ontario. Group Retirement Savings clients who are not using Desjardins banking services are not affected.

The Principles for Responsible Banking External link. Opens in a new window. (PRB) provide the framework for a sustainable banking system. They’re intended to help the industry demonstrate how it makes a positive contribution to society.

The Principles were launched by 130 banks from 49 countries, representing more than US$47 trillion in assets. More than 45 CEOs, including the President and CEO of Desjardins Group, Guy Cormier, were on hand for the official signing at the UN in New York City in September.

The financial sector can make a significant impact in the fight against climate change and the push for responsible and sustainable development. And as a signatory, Desjardins is demonstrating real leadership. "The brand of capitalism we've seen over the last 30 or 40 years has caused significant collateral damage, including increased inequality and unbridled resource consumption. We need to change course and take a more inclusive approach that ensures the sustainable use of the resources essential to human life," said Mr. Cormier.

Desjardins's decision to sign the PRB is also meant to increase awareness among stakeholders, including members and clients, directors, employees, partners and even competitors.

Avantages, the French-language sister publication of Benefits Canada, recently celebrated 30 years with a special anniversary edition. One of the feature articles French only external link. Opens in a new window. (French only) showcased David Charbonneau, Senior Vice-President of Group Retirement Savings for Desjardins Insurance.

In this special edition of the magazine, David weighed in on a major change he’s observed over the past 30 years: plan members’ financial goals are no longer limited to retirement, but cover a much wider field. He talked about how the teams at Desjardins Insurance are always doing their utmost to meet and surpass the expectations of clients and plan members. He also pointed out that our dedication to engaging plan members no longer ends when they stop working—we’re now equally focused on maintaining strong relationships throughout their retirement years.

And that’s why we’ve developed a range of simple, accessible and innovative solutions. These include our retirement goal tracker, the Financial Wellness Centre, and our most recent initiative, the online Education Centre. One common thread runs throughout: it’s our focus on plan members’ overall financial wellness.

Plan members worry about more than just saving—they also worry about how to draw down their savings in retirement. That’s why we’re also developing concrete solutions they can use to optimize their savings as we accompany them through this important stage of their lives.

Due to a system upgrade, our secure websites (plan sponsor and participant) will be unavailable on Saturday, November 30, 2019, from 6 am to 6 pm (ET). Thank you for your understanding.

Here is the schedule for the production and mail-out of RRSP and VRSP tax receipts for 2019 and the first 60 days of 2020. It will be posted at dfs.ca/participant shortly. Plan members can download and print a copy of their receipts from the site as soon as they’re available. Original receipts will be mailed a week later.

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, 2019.¹

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.

The lucky winner of our $5,000 Splurge or save—up to you! contest is Ms. Lorena M. Rupita of Calgary, Alberta.

The contest ran from July 1 to September 29, 2019. All participants who completed or updated their On Target Retirement^® goal tracker on the site during this period were automatically entered. For more details, see the contest rules Opens in a new window..

Congratulations to the winner!

We’ll be sending out the year-end financial statements soon. We want to make sure that your plan members receive them, so it’s important that their home and email addresses are up to date in our systems.

Please verify that all your plan members’ home addresses are up to date and confirm the email addresses for those receiving electronic statements.

Going forward, why not remind your plan members to change their addresses themselves? All they have to do is log in to dfs.ca/participant and click My profile.

Another option is for you to do it for them. Log in to dfs.ca/plansponsor and click Participant management. You can then search for the applicable plan member and make the necessary changes.

If you need to make several changes, you can send them to us in a standard demographic file. For more information, please contact your dedicated plan administrator or call Plan Sponsor Services at 1-888-510-4762 This link will launch your default phone software..

Are any of your plan members turning 71 this year? Please make sure to review the What can you do? paragraph below to ensure a smooth transition for them.

Plan members sometimes forget that they need to convert their registered savings plan (DCPP, SPP, RRSP, LIRA or locked-in RRSP, DPSP, or VRSP) into a retirement income solution by the end of the year they turn 71. If they don’t, we will transfer any non-locked-in amounts to a RRIF and any locked-in amounts to a LIF. And if their balance is less than 20% of the maximum pensionable earnings for the year ($11,480), they’ll receive a lump-sum payment, which is taxable.

We send plan members in this situation a statement of options every September and try to encourage them to choose how they want to convert their savings, but there are always a few stragglers. We’re hoping you can help us help them.

What can you do?

• Ensure that plan members’ addresses are up to date so they receive their option statement.
• Remind plan members that our Retirement Specialists can not only help them understand their options, but also help them choose the combination that will best suit their needs.

Important: to make sure these plan members receive all the contributions and tax benefits they’re entitled to, send us their final contributions (remittances and payments) by December 1, 2019. By law, we will have to return any contributions received after December 31, 2019.

We make it easy for plan members to decide how their savings will take them into retirement. They can call our Retirement Specialists at 1-877-585-3033 This link will launch your default phone software.. And if you have any questions, you can contact your dedicated administrator or Plan Sponsor Services at 1-888-510-4762 This link will launch your default phone software..

On December 6, 2019, Desjardins Insurance will be making changes to the Desjardins 30/70, Desjardins 50/50, Desjardins 70/30 and Desjardins 90/10 Funds, which is the portfolio series used as part of the Voluntary Retirement Savings Plan (VRSP) offer. These changes aim to further enhance the portfolios’ diversification level, notably by introducing new asset classes. The main changes are as follows:

• Modification of the composition in fixed income securities by allocating 30% to foreign bonds, through the addition of the Vanguard Global Fixed Income Index, Desjardins Global Bond (Lombard Odier) and Desjardins Global Tactical Bond (PIMCO) Funds
• Introduction of an exposure to global small cap equities and emerging market equities, through the addition of the Desjardins Global Small Cap Equity (Lazard) and DFS BlackRock^® MSCI Emerging Markets Index Funds
• Removal of the Desjardins Canadian Equity Income (Lincluden), DFS BlackRock^® Global Real Estate Index and DFS BlackRock^® Global Infrastructure Index Funds to improve complementarity in management styles and investment strategies within the portfolios

For more information about these changes, please contact your Client Relationship Manager.

BlackRock^® is a registered trademark of BlackRock, Inc. Used under license.

Canso

On August 5, Canso became a signatory of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

Mawer

On September 25, Mawer signed the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). In conjunction with signing the PRI, they also updated their own Responsible Investing Policy. It outlines their responsible investing principles and guidelines that apply to investment decisions, engagement with company management, and the voting of shareholder proxies.

BlackRock

On October 7, BlackRock confirmed that as of October 1, 2019, the target asset allocation in the LifePath Canada Index portfolios fully reflects the implementation of inflation hedging research that they began in March 2019.

MFS

On October 8, MFS announced that David Antonelli will retire as a portfolio manager of Global Equity Growth and Global Concentrated Equity MFS strategies on April 15, 2021. Current portfolio managers, Jeff Constantino and Joe Skorski, will continue to manage the strategies and work closely with Antonelli to ensure a smooth transition. This transition will not result in any changes to the investment approach of the strategies. The portfolio management teams will continue to work closely with Andrew Boyd, an institutional portfolio manager, and Peter Loncto, an investment products specialist, who are responsible for communicating the investment policy, strategy and positioning of the portfolio.

On October 10, MFS announced an upcoming organizational change within its Equity Team. As of March 1, 2020, MFS will adopt a regional structure headed by Co-Chief investment officers in Asia, Europe and America. This approach is designed to better integrate their equity research and portfolio management teams. The Co-Chief investment team will include Simon Gresham and Jeanine Thompson for Asia, Christopher Jennings and David Shindler for Europe, and Kevin Beatty and Alison O’Neil for America. They will all report to Ted Maloney, MFS Chief Investment Officer, and will retain their current portfolio management responsibilities.

As part of our good governance processes, we evaluate each fund offered on our group retirement savings platform on a quarterly basis to ensure compliance with our selection criteria.

This evaluation is based on four main elements:

• Personnel
• Investment processes
• Compliance with the stipulated management style
• Performance

The result of this analysis is that some funds are placed on a watch list that is updated every quarter.

For each fund on the watch list, the areas of concern are identified and then closely monitored. Funds remain on the watch list until the situation has been resolved, or in the event that the concerns persist, until they are no longer recommended or are removed from the platform.

Our fund watch list, including a list of funds no longer recommended, is published quarterly in the Your news section of the Plan sponsor services website (dfs.ca/plansponsor).