March 2020 Edition

Since the end of January, the continued spread of the coronavirus (COVID‑19) has resulted in increased stock market volatility. It’s a good time for investors to remember that investments in the market are susceptible to significant short-term fluctuations and that the market is never completely protected from unforeseen regional or global events that can impact the value of their investments.

The full extent of the financial impact of the virus remains uncertain and will depend on how it spreads and how the response plays out. But financial markets have already forecast a short-term downturn for the global economy, particularly in terms of tourism and decreased supply and demand from China. But over the long term, the situation will stabilize, evening out market fluctuations and bringing things back to normal.

We’re keeping an eye on the situation and watching how different funds we offer are behaving. To limit the negative impacts arising from this market volatility, it’s important that you remind retirement savings plan members to do the following:

• Keep a diversified portfolio that will mitigate losses amid stock market convulsions
• Make sure their portfolio lines up with their investor profile
• Keep their investment goals in mind

We’ve also published a similar message on the plan member website.

As of the end of February 2020, Franklin Templeton modified the structure of its global real asset fund, offered through the Desjardins Insurance group retirement savings platform. The listed global real estate and infrastructure securities components are now being managed by Franklin Templeton according to passive mandates, replacing the actively managed funds used by the manager since the fund’s inception. This change allows for an optimization of the fund’s structure, by minimizing the cost associated with assets whose main objective is to ensure daily liquidity, without affecting the fund’s global return objective. This change does not have any impact on the private real asset fund portfolio, which represents the fund’s main component.

In conjunction with this change, we are proud to announce that the investment fee associated with the fund on our platform has been reduced by 0.10%, for the benefit of both current and future investors. This fee reduction automatically took effect as of March 1, 2020.

About the Franklin Templeton Global Real Asset Fund

This actively managed fund aims to provide both current income and long-term capital appreciation through a portfolio of investment funds that invest in various real asset sectors of the global economy. It primarily allocates capital to core private real estate and infrastructure strategies as well as public real estate and infrastructure securities strategies. It may also invest in other real asset classes such as agriculture and timber, or in other private real estate and infrastructure strategies (value-added, opportunistic and direct-held). The fund targets a net annualized return of at least 4% higher than that of the Canada Consumer Price Index, over four-year moving periods.

For more information about this change, do not hesitate to communicate with your client relationship manager.

On January 29, 2020, Beutel Goodman announced the appointment of Vim Thasan, MBA, CFA, as vice-president of the Canadian Equity team. Mr. Thasan joins Beutel Goodman with 20 years of experience in the financial industry, including 11 years in investment management. Most recently, he was a portfolio manager at 1832 Asset Management.

Desjardins has been picking up the pace in fighting and adapting to climate change. Here are some concrete commitments we made in 2019:

• Desjardins became the first Canadian financial institution to sign the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB). The principles, signed in New York, constitute a formal commitment to the United Nations.
• We continued to put greater emphasis on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in our investment management processes and in our savings, financing, real estate management and responsible procurement offers.
• We set a new goal to bring our own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions down 20% from 2018 by the year 2024.
• We moved up the timeline for installing 200 electric vehicle charging stations at our Quebec and eastern Ontario caisses. (Desjardins has already installed 184 charging stations throughout the caisse network.)

Becoming and remaining carbon neutral

Since 2017, Desjardins has remained carbon neutral by purchasing carbon credits to offset greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Between now and 2024, we’ll continue to reduce our GHG emissions by prioritizing programs to optimize business travel and reduce paper consumption. We’re also going to work on improving the energy efficiency of our buildings and our vehicle fleet. Stay tuned!

Click here External link. Opens in a new window.. for more information on our measures to combat climate change.

The DC Plan Summit, hosted by Benefits Canada and held in Montreal from February 5 to 7, 2020, was attended by close to 100 plan sponsors and other industry players, like insurers and group advisors. Attendees heard from various speakers, including Maria-José Perea, our VP, Business Solutions and Marketing.

In her presentation on the evolution of pension plans, she spoke of the challenges of saving for retirement and the financial stress experienced by plan members. She said we need to take an interest in plan members’ overall financial needs, so we can support them more effectively in planning for their retirement.

Maria-José also gave an overview of our comprehensive financial wellness approach in collaboration with employers: recognizing plan members’ day-to-day realities; providing support and advisory services to help them reach their short- and long-term goals; communicating with plan members more frequently to boost engagement and improve their financial literacy; consolidating their assets so they can get competitive rates; and being there to offer advice based on their various life goals.

Maria-José concluded her very well-received presentation by saying, “To really help our plan members prepare for retirement, we have to give them the right advice at the right time, with the right goal in mind. That means we have to integrate advice that’s always accessible online with indispensable access to human expertise […] We also need to offer plan members an experience that’s as simple, practical and valuable as any other buying experience provided by the most leading-edge providers.”

With the contribution management solution, plan members can better manage their contributions and set up automatic transfers and lump-sum contributions to their RRSP, TFSA or non-registered plan through the plan member site.

The contribution management solution also streamlines your tasks: at the end of each bonus period, you’ll receive a detailed report telling you what each plan member wants to do with their bonus. All that’s left for you to do is to remit the contributions.

Want to make your job even easier? Combine the contribution management solution with our other solutions like contribution level management and transfer of electronic data (TED).

To sign up for contribution management, contribution level management or TED, contact your client relationship manager or call Plan Sponsor Services at 1-888-510-4762 This link will launch your default phone software..

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requires all employers who sponsor a registered pension plan (RPP)¹ to file a T1007 – Connected Person Information Return External link. Opens in a new window.  within 60 days of a connected person becoming a member of the RPP. To find out what you need to do, read the Employer Instructions section on the T1007 return.

The T1007 late filing penalty is $25 per day for up to a maximum of 100 days.

A connected person² is someone who meets one or more of the following conditions:

• She/he owns (or is deemed to own), directly or indirectly, at least 10% of the issued shares of any class of the capital stock of the employer, or of any other corporation that is related to the employer.
• She/he doesn’t deal at arm's length with the employer. It includes people like the employer’s majority shareholder, and anyone related to the majority shareholder—like a spouse, child, sibling, parent or in-law.
• She/he is deemed to be a specified shareholder of the employer under paragraph (d) of the definition of “specified shareholder” in subsection 248(1) of the Income Tax Act.

A person is deemed to own all or a part, depending on the situation, of the company shares that belong to:

• Another person who does not deal with her/him at arm’s length (such as the spouse, child, sibling, parent, in-law).
• A trust for which she/he is the beneficiary.
• A partnership to which she/he is a member.

Important: This is not an exhaustive list of definitions. For advice on your specific situation, please speak to your tax specialist.

When you rehire an employee, regardless of the reason (seasonal layoffs, a competitive labour market, etc.), don’t forget to contact Plan Sponsor Services or your administrator before you start remitting contributions for them. If you don’t, the remittance for all your employees will be delayed.

When that happens, we have to contact you to find out what’s going on. By letting us know ahead of time, you can avoid potential complications and your remittance will be processed on time.

To prevent delays, just give us a call at 1-888-510-4762 This link will launch your default phone software. or send us a note to grs_plansponsor@dfs.ca. We’ll do the rest!

What is a PAD?

A pre-authorized debit (PAD) allows Desjardins to withdraw the total amount of employee contributions to be deposited to the plan, directly from your company’s bank account.

Why should you change your actual method to PAD?

Because it’s quick, easy and reliable. Thanks to PAD, the exact amount is withdrawn from your account when you send us your contribution list. You no longer have the extra step of sending in the contributions by cheque, e-transfer or online payment. The two steps of your contribution remittance are combined in one and your payment and the contribution total will always balance.

Not sure about having Desjardins make withdrawals directly from your bank account?

You control when the withdrawals are made and how much is withdrawn, since the PAD is triggered when you send in the contribution list. It’s important to note that PAD doesn’t permit any other types of transactions to be performed in your account.

How do you sign up?

Simply fill out the PAD for businesses form, available on the Plan sponsor website. Go to dfs.ca/plansponsor, click on Log on and then Group retirement savings. Enter your User ID and password, and then from the home page, go to the Forms section. You can also get the form by calling Plan Sponsor Services at 1-888-510-4762 This link will launch your default phone software. or by sending us a note to grs_plansponsor@dfs.ca.

The "Start the year on the right foot" contest is soon coming to an end! Remember to notify your plan members.

Registration: All they have to do is visit our Wellness Centre by logging in to the member site via dfs.ca/participant

Draw: A grand prize of $5,000

Deadline: March 31, 2020

The Wellness Centre helps your plan members:

• 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

Get everyone talking!

Print and display the poster in a prominent place.

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

By participating in this contest, your plan members could find what they need to face their financial future with confidence.

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