May 2020 Edition

Now more than ever, Desjardins will embrace its values and honour its mission to help improve the economic and social well-being of people and communities, both in Canada and abroad. For example, various relief measures for business members and clients External link. Opens in a new window., including the Business Credit Availability Program (BCAP) offered by Desjardins and Export Development Canada (EDC), have been put in place. And since April 18 External link. Opens in a new window., members aged 70 and over have had access to a priority telephone line when they call their caisse or 1 800 CAISSES This link will launch your default phone software..

Support measures for young people

In March, Desjardins made a contribution to organizations offering assistance to young people (Kids Help Phone External link. Opens in a new window. and Allô Prof External link. Opens in a new window.) to help deal with the increase in their call volume. Furthermore, Desjardins is making psychological and legal assistance available by telephone to its members aged 30 and under during the pandemic period. Fondation Desjardins External link. Opens in a new window. also enhanced its scholarship program. For more details on assistance measures for young people, visit Desjardins.com External link. Opens in a new window..

Desjardins joins forces with L’Appui to support caregivers

On April 16, L’Appui External link. Opens in a new window. announced that they received a substantial financial donation from Desjardins for Caregiver Support External link. Opens in a new window., its free phone consultation. Caregivers are so important to families and communities, especially in times like this. At Desjardins, we want to be there for caregivers and address the real needs of seniors, their families and others involved in their care. Thanks to this financial support, L’Appui will be able to increase their services on weekends.

Caregiver Support (1 855 852-7784 This link will launch your default phone software.) is a free and confidential phone consultation, information and referral service for the caregivers of older adults, as well as friends and family, practitioners and health care professionals. Do not hesitate to share this information with your plan members.

Are you ready for a new era in retirement savings? Watch the video External link. Opens in a new window. of our Vice-President Development, Delivery and Marketing, Maria-José Perea’s presentation. The video was shot at Benefits Canada's annual DC Plan Summit in February, as mentioned in our March issue Opens in a new window..

With a solid plan, retirement can be an exciting new stage of life. But situations like the current pandemic can suddenly cast a cloud over it.

“Several decisions come into play for plan members to enjoy their retirement and not all of them are simple. What expenses will I need to cover in retirement? Should I start receiving my CPP/QPP benefits or delay them? Should I start by using my Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) balance? These are all questions that our Retirement Specialists are fully equipped to answer,” explains Jennifer Katzsch, Regional Vice-President, Western Canada, Group Retirement Savings and head of the GRS Retirement Specialists team.

When markets are as volatile as they currently are, having a diversified portfolio invested according to their risk profile is also something that can help your plan members have peace of mind. “They can also use our online tools like On Target Retirement and our Financial wellness centre, accessible via dfs.ca/participant Opens in a new window.,” adds Jennifer Katzsch.

For more information on how our Retirement Specialists can help your plan members prepare for a retirement that is as enjoyable as possible, contact our Plan sponsor services or your client relationship manager.

For security reasons, access to our secure member site is now done via the public site, desjardinslifeinsurance.com.

To help plan members create their online account or retrieve their user ID or password, we have produced two short tutorials:

How to create your online account Opens in a new window.

Forgot your user ID or password? Opens in a new window.

We will be including these tutorials in our future communications. Don’t hesitate to share them with your plan members in your own communications.

We’ve created a web page Opens in a new window. for your plan members to offer our assistance and alleviate their investment concerns during this pandemic.

Plan members can access the page via desjardinslifeinsurance.com. All they need to do is click See the COVID-19 page, and then, under Group retirement savings, Learn more.

Be sure to visit this page, which will be regularly updated, and don’t hesitate to share this information with your plan members.

In order to support your plan members during these challenging times, an email campaign to promote our online education webinars will take place in the next few weeks. These webinars are on debt management and budgeting, taking into account the current situation caused by COVID-19.

Online Education Centre webinars are streamed live by Webex. To register, plan members need to log in to their account via dfs.ca/participant Opens in a new window., go to the Wellness Centre and under Education Centre, select Available webinars. If they click on a course, they will see the corresponding details and schedule. Once plan members complete their registration, they will receive a confirmation email.

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/participant 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 on 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.: Go to dfs.ca/plansponsor, click Log on and then select Group retirement savings. Enter your user ID and your password. Once on the home page, 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. For more details, please contact your client relationship manager or call Plan Sponsor Services at 1 888 280-2447 This link will launch your default phone software..

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

To make sure you can leave work behind and not worry:

1. Fill out the Authorization to Access Plan and/or Personal Participant Information form Opens in a new window. to designate a replacement and give them the access they require to the plan sponsor site.

You need to complete this authorization form so that your back-up is issued their own user ID. You shouldn’t share your user ID for security reasons. 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 back-up so they can do:

• Enrolments
• Updates to personal information
• Terminations
• Contribution remittances

To help you train your back-up, refer to the administrative guide available on the plan sponsor site 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 on the home page, click Guides and procedures.

On April 20, 2020, Desjardins Insurance modified the underlying investment to the Desjardins Global Bond Fund offered through its group retirement savings platform. More specifically, the mandate managed by Lombard Odier, based on a systematic investment approach, was replaced by a broader mandate managed by PGIM, one of the largest fixed income portfolio managers in the world. This new mandate, which integrates top-down macroeconomic analysis to the bottom-up research used for security selection, primarily invests in fixed-income securities of issuers throughout the world, including emerging market bonds and high-yield bonds. This broadened investment universe allows the fund to target, over four-year moving periods, an annualized return at least 1.50% higher than that of the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index, hedged against currency fluctuations in relation to the Canadian dollar.

It should be noted that this change will not have any impact on the fund’s fees.

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

Fiera Capital

On March 19, 2020, the Fiera Global management team announced two changes within their team. Jean-Philippe Lemay was named the firm’s Global President and Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the Canadian, U.S. and European divisions, and reports to Jean-Guy Desjardins, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fiera Capital. Mr. Lemay succeeds Vincent Duhamel, who is now Vice Chairman of the Fiera Capital Board of Directors.

Beutel, Goodman & Compagnie Ltée.

Beutel, Goodman & Compagnie Ltée. (Beutel Goodman) formalized the retirement of Mark Thomson on March 31, 2020. Following his departure, Stephen Arpin, Managing Director, Canadian Equity, and Rui Cardoso, Managing Director, American and International Equity, became members of the Beutel Goodman management committee (the committee). In addition, Jeff Young, Managing Director, Private Client Group, serves as chair of the committee. Finally, effective March 31, Director of Equity Research James Black was appointed as the co-manager of their large cap Canadian equity strategy and their Canadian dividend strategy.

Hexavest

On April 16, 2020, the Hexavest team announced a strategic reorganization of their investment team. They decided to abolish the position of Co-chief investment Officer, occupied by Vincent Delisle, as well as three positions from the management team:

• Portfolio Manager, Asian markets, occupied by Etienne Durocher-Dumais
• Portfolio Manager, North American markets, occupied by Kevin LeBlanc and Mathieu Roy
• Analyst, European markets, occupied by Catherine Bilodeau

Vital Proulx, co-founder and chairman of the board, is once again the Chief Investment Officer. The management team structure changes from four regional teams to a single team whose members will have shared responsibilities between developed and emerging markets.

As part of its governance process, Desjardins Insurance evaluates each fund offered on its group retirement savings platform on a quarterly basis to ensure compliance with its 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 quarterly.

For each fund on the watch list, the areas of concern are identified and then closely monitored. Funds will 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.

In addition to producing the fund watch list, the governance process also aims to ensure that managers adhere to their existing investment policies. The result is the production of a General Certificate of Compliance and a Summary of Investment Policy Changes that is updated quarterly.

Our fund watch list, a list of funds no longer recommended, the General Certificate of Compliance, the Summary of Investment Policy Changes and all of the funds' investment policies are published quarterly on the plan sponsor services website. To access the site, go to dfs.ca/plansponsor. Select Log on > Group retirement savings and enter your User ID and password. Then, from the home page, access the Your news section.