December 2020 Edition

While markets remain volatile, your plan members are advised to stay the course. But what does that mean?

To help your plan members put in place the right investment strategy based on their needs, we sent them an email on December 4, which included a link to a short video on best practices to follow during highly volatile markets.

This video will be available in the My messages section of the plan member site. It will also appear on your plan members’ year-end statements.

We remain committed to giving your plan members all the support and information they need during these difficult times.

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 2020 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, 2020, to request a withdrawal online (if permitted by the plan).
• By phone: Plan members have until 4:00 pm (ET) on December 31, 2020, 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, 2020.*

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.

*Please allow 5 to 10 business days for us to process requests received by email, fax or mail.

Unpaid contributions, missing contribution lists or enrolments, and discrepancies between contribution lists and payments can all have major financial and tax implications for your plan members. For RRSPs, if something is missing or isn’t right, we can't issue contribution receipts, either for the first 60 days or for the period from March to December.

For TFSA and non-registered plans, investments can’t be made until the resolution of the discrepancy or the transmission of the missing information.

Here’s what happens:

Find out more about the tax implications for missing enrolments in our October 2020 Opens in a new window. article.

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 2020. 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, 2020, to December 31, 2020, you must send us your remittances by December 24, 2020.

** RRSP/VRSP contributions received after December 31 will be included on the receipt for the first 60 days of 2021 (January 1, 2021, to March 1, 2021). This receipt can be used for 2020 tax returns.

How to make a lump-sum contribution

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

Online (highly recommended)

• 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 write their group number and employee or plan member number on the back.

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

The Voluntary Retirement Savings Plans (VRSP) Act states that 2 years after employees opt out of the VRSP¹ or stop contributing, employers must send them a notice in December offering those employees the opportunity to participate in the plan. That’s why you need to send a notice in December to employees who opted out of the plan.

Example:

John stopped contributing to his VRSP in April 2018. That means you have to offer him the opportunity to start contributing again in December 2020.

Stephanie stopped contributing in July 2019. That means you have to offer her the opportunity to start contributing again in December 2021.

Here’s a sample message (DOCX, 31 KB) you can use.

Questions?

Contact Plan Sponsor Services at 1-844-499-7837 This link will launch your default phone software. or by email This link will launch your default mailing software..

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, 2020, and December 31, 2020.

Registered Pension Plans (RPP): SPP and DC

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.

RPP: 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.

On November 19, 2020, Fiera announced the expansion of its "Core" small-cap team, co-led by Michael Chan and Ashish Chaturvedi. As lead portfolio manager of the Canadian Small Cap Core Strategy, Michael Chan continues to focus on the Canadian market. Ashish Chaturvedi continues to act as the lead portfolio manager of the Global Small Cap Strategy, launched in August 2019. Under this new structure, both strategies benefit from extensive research and portfolio management. In addition, the teams can rely on two analysts to support their research efforts.

On November 10, 2020, CI Investments Inc. announced the creation of CI Global Asset Management (CI GAM), a unified investment team, bringing together CI Investments and its in-house boutiques—Signature Global Asset Management, Cambridge Global Asset Management, Harbour Advisors, Sentry Investment Management, and CI Multi-Asset Management —under one brand, thereby increasing their investment depth and breadth as an organization.

Cambridge Global Asset Management also announced that Brandon Snow, Co-Portfolio Manager of the Cambridge Asset Allocation strategy, will be retiring in 2021 to spend more time with his family. Brandon Snow has been preparing his succession for the past two years and has successfully transferred his day-to-day responsibilities to other managers. Effective immediately, CI GAM has named Stephen Groff as Co-Portfolio Manager, he will be sharing the responsibility with Bob Swanson and Paul Marcogliese.

On November 3, 2020, CC&L announced that Paul Kim, an analyst on its Canadian Equity Fundamental team, made the difficult decision to return to the United States for family reasons. He left the team at the beginning of November. A search for his replacement is underway. In the meantime, his responsibilities will be fulfilled by other members of the team.

On January 1, 2020, the Ontario government amended the Pension Benefits Act to allow DC plan administrators to establish a variable benefit account under that plan. As a result of this change, Regulation 909: General has also been amended to allow the transfer of funds from or to these plans.

The following changes will therefore apply to Ontario-regulated LIRAs and LIFs:

• Your plan members can transfer the amounts accumulated in a LIRA, a LIF or a locked-in retirement income fund (LRIF) to a variable benefit account offered in a DC plan.
• If the DC plan offers a variable benefit account, your plan members can also request the transfer of the amounts accumulated in this account to a LIRA or a LIF.

A notice about this subject will be sent to holders of Ontario-regulated LIRAs and LIFs.

For any questions, contact Plan Sponsor Services or your client relationship manager.

As of October 22, 2020, administrators of plans registered in New Brunswick are required to establish a governance policy. The policy doesn’t have to be filed with the Superintendent, but it must be available upon request.

Desjardins Insurance can provide you with a customizable governance policy template. For a copy of this template, contact your client relationship manager.