May 2021 Edition

Desjardins Group is donating $100,000 to the Canadian Red Cross’ India COVID-19 Response Appeal. The money raised will enable the Red Cross to support various response, prevention and recovery activities in India.

Desjardins members and clients who wish to make a donation to the India COVID-19 Response Appeal can do so online at redcross.ca External link. Opens in a new window. or by calling 1-800-418-1111.

Read the press release External link. Opens in a new window..

Your plan members need practical information and tips to optimize their savings, reach their retirement goals and simply be better prepared for life events. That’s why we’ve enhanced the Financial wellness section of the Wellness Centre and Penny, the virtual guide, available on the plan member website and our new mobile app, Omni Desjardins External link. Opens in a new window..

Wellness Centre: Now more practical and user-friendly

Featuring a wealth of information and educational resources, the Wellness Centre offers your plan members articles, webinars, tools and videos on:

• Saving
• Finance
• Retirement
• Financial empowerment

The content is updated regularly to reflect plan members’ needs.

Penny’s gotten a makeover!

The new version of Penny links plan members to the various digital tools. She supports them in their retirement planning by providing interactive tips to help them reach their savings goals and achieve financial empowerment.

In the coming days, we’ll send your plan members an email outlining these new features, as is our usual practice.

We also encourage you to use these posters to promote Desjardins’ group retirement savings digital offer to your plan members.

8.5 x 11 poster (PDF, 797 ko) External link. Opens in a new window.

11 x 17 poster (PDF, 797 ko) External link. Opens in a new window.

Encourage your plan members to participate in the Savings shouldn’t be puzzling contest. In addition to giving them a chance to win a $1,000 cash prize, they’ll have their group retirement savings at their fingertips and be able to manage their account anytime, anywhere.

How to enter

To automatically be entered in the contest, all your plan members need to do is log on to their group retirement savings account via the Omni Desjardins mobile app before June 6, 2021.

The first 2 winners

The first random draw was held on May 11. Congratulations to Samuel Leger of Cap-Pelé, New Brunswick and Skye Mullen of Plympton, Nova Scotia, who will each receive $1,000! The next (and final) draw to select 2 more winners is scheduled for June 9.

If you haven’t already done so, you can use these posters to promote the contest.

8.5 x 11 poster (PDF, 3.3 MB) External link. Opens in a new window.

11 x 17 poster (PDF, 3.3 MB) External link. Opens in a new window.

To learn more, read the full contest rules (PDF, 228 KB) Opens in a new window..

We’ll be starting to put together June’s financial statements shortly. To ensure your plan members receive their paper or e-statements, their postal and email addresses must be up to date in our systems. You can help us out by reminding your employees to change their addresses themselves on the secure site via dfs.ca/GroupPlanMember Opens in a new window. or with the Omni Desjardins app, or by doing it for them on the plan sponsor site.

Plan member site Opens in a new window.: Your plan members can update their addresses by clicking My profile in the top right corner of their screen, and then Edit in the Information box.

Plan sponsor site Opens in a new window.: Click Log on and then select Group retirement savings. Enter your user ID and password. Once you’re on the home page of the secure site, click Participant management, search for the person whose address has changed and make the necessary corrections.

If you have a lot of changes to make, you can send them to us in a standard demographic file.

Thank you for helping us keep your plan members’ information up to date.

For more details, please contact your client relationship manager or call Plan Sponsor Services at 1-888-510-4762.

Some discrepancies can have major financial implications for your plan members:

• A payment without a corresponding contribution list
• Unpaid contributions
• Discrepancies between contribution lists and payments
• Missing enrolments

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

In addition, RRSP contribution receipts can’t be issued if there is missing or incorrect information.

Here’s what happens:

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

To make sure you can leave work behind without worry:

1. Fill out the Request to grant or revoke access to plan information and plan members’ personal information form (PDF, 1.01 MB) Opens in a new window. to designate a replacement and give them access to the plan sponsor site.
   
   You need to complete the authorization form so that your backup can be issued their own user ID. For security reasons, don’t share your user ID. If your replacement forgets your user ID, and then calls us for help, we won’t be able to do anything if they’re not in our system.
2. Train your backup so they can do:
   • Enrolments
   • Updates to personal information
   • Terminations
   • Contribution remittances

To help you train your backup, refer to the administrative guide available at dfs.ca/plansponsor Opens in a new window.. Click Log on, select Group retirement savings and then enter your user ID and password. Once you’re on the home page of the secure site, click Guides and procedures.

As of May 25, 2021, the underlying manager of the Desjardins Global Dividend Fund, offered through the group retirement savings platform, will be modified by Desjardins Investments. More specifically, the mandate that will now be handled by Mondrian Investment Partners will be similar to the one currently managed by Epoch Investment Partners. The fund’s objective will remain the same, which is to provide dividend income and long-term capital appreciation by investing in equities and equity-linked securities issued by worldwide companies, including some, when appropriate, from emerging markets. The investment strategy will be based on a combination of a bottom-up approach for selecting securities and a top-down approach for evaluating countries and currencies. The manager will conduct robust assessments of the companies’ fundamental value to identify quality defensive securities that are undervalued on the market.

Some adjustments will be made to the fund’s investment parameters. The portfolio is expected to be more concentrated, as the minimum number of securities held will be reduced from 80 to 35. However, the active risk targeted by the mandate will be reduced, ranging from a target of 4%–8% to 3%–5%. In addition, the manager may have exposure of up to 20% in securities that do not pay dividends. The portfolio must maintain a dividend yield of at least 125% of its benchmark.

These changes will not impact the fund’s fees.

For more information about these changes, contact your client relationship manager.

Beutel Goodman

On March 30, 2021, Beutel Goodman announced the upcoming retirement of Michael Gibson, Managing Director, Operations. Jackie Corneil, Vice President, Finance and Administration, will join the Management Committee as a full participating member. Effective January 1, 2022, she will also assume the title of Managing Director. As part of this transition, Shadi Shakra was promoted to Chief Technology Officer, as of April 1, 2021.

Fiera Real Estate

On March 31, 2021, Fiera Real Estate announced that Peter Cuthbert decided to step down as President and Head of Global Real Estate. Since February 12, 2021, a qualified successor, Richard Dansereau, has taken up the position previously held by Mr. Cuthbert.