August 2023 Edition

The 5-second summary: We’ll be rolling out a new multi-platform campaign this September for plan members ages 61 to 71.

Our Converting your savings into retirement income campaign will guide and reassure plan members ages 61 to 71 as they head toward the next step in their savings journey: making mandatory withdrawals the year after they turn 71.

The campaign will encourage them to be proactive about setting a strategy for withdrawing from their plans.

Depending on their age, those targeted will receive an email with 1 of the 2 main messages:

The 5-second summary: Find out the names of our spring contest winners who each won $1,000.

The random draw for our Look at the bright side of savings! contest was held on June 8, 2023. Congratulations to the 5 winners who each received $1,000:

• Virgie Bayeng of Edmonton, Alberta
• Benjamin Bleirad of Montreal, Quebec
• Cole Harrison of Prince George, British Columbia
• Anterpreet Randhawa of East Garafraxa, Ontario
• Lise Richer of Valcourt, Quebec

For more details, see the contest rules (PDF, 235​ KB) - This link opens in a new window..

The 5-second summary: It’s a big year for people turning 71 as they’ll have to convert their group savings to retirement income by year end. Help them by letting us know if you’ll make contributions to their plan, and by making sure we have their right address and date of birth.

Your employees who are turning 71 this year will need to transfer the assets in their retirement savings plan to a retirement income vehicle by the end of the year.^[Note 1]

As of September, The Desjardins Insurance benefits statement will be sent to these employees by mail and will be available in their online account. The statement will outline their options.

We ask them to return their benefits statement (where they’ve indicated their choice) by December 1 in order to get a head start on the plan conversion. However, the Canada Revenue Agency gives them until December 31, 2023, to make the choice. If we don’t hear back from them, we’ll apply the procedure for failure to respond. This procedure is explained in their benefits statement.

Check that we have the correct address on file and correct it if we don’t.

If plan members want a new paper copy, they’ll have to call the Customer Contact Centre at 1-800-968-3587.

If you have any questions, please call your plan administrator or Plan Sponsor Services at 1-888-510-4762.

The 5-second summary: Simple, fast and reliable, pre-authorized debits avoid errors and additional delays.

Forget about sending your contributions by cheque, e-transfer or online payment. Pre-authorized debits (PAD) save you time and energy.

A pre-authorized debit (PAD) is an authorization you give to Desjardins to withdraw the contribution amounts to be remitted to your plan from your bank account.

Because it’s quick, easy and reliable. A PAD is automatically triggered when you send us your contribution list and withdraws the exact amount from your account.

• Just 1 step: send your contribution list.
• ​The payment amount automatically matches the total contribution amount, minimizing errors and additional delays.
• Processing times are significantly shorter than by cheque, e-transfer or online payment.
• Forgetting to send the payment with the contribution list is avoided.

Consult our article Problems to avoid at all costs to understand the implications of certain contribution discrepancies.

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

Important: If you noticed a mistake with your contributions when submitting your list, please call Plan Sponsor Services or your client relationship manager as soon as possible to quickly rectify the situation.

Just complete and return the form (PDF, 197 MB) - This link opens in a new window. to us by mail OR through your account at dfs.ca/plansponsor under File transfer.

This form is also available:

• In the Forms section at dfs.ca/plansponsor
• From your plan administrator
• From Plan Sponsor Services by email at grs_plansponsor@dfs.ca or by phone at 1-888-510-4762

The 5-second summary: The fund will be added to the platform on August 31, 2023.

Desjardins Insurance is proud to announce the addition of the DFS BlackRock^® Extra Long Bond Index Fund on its group retirement savings platform on August 31, 2023. This fund provides plan sponsors with defined benefit plans access to an additional risk management tool. It improves the asset-liability matching potential for plans where the liability duration is very long. It should be noted that this fund was, up until now, offered on an off-platform basis under the name DFS BlackRock^® 20+ Strip Bond Index Fund.

About the DFS BlackRock^® Extra Long Bond Index Fund

This fund is passively managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada and aims to provide a moderate return derived primarily from income by investing in a broadly diversified portfolio of Canadian strip bonds, primarily federal and provincial, with maturities of over 20 years. It seeks to reproduce the annualized return of the FTSE Canada 20+ Strip Bond Index.

The fund is designed for institutional investors who wish to lengthen the duration of their fixed income portfolio in order to hedge the interest rate risk related to their liabilities.

For more information about this new fund, don’t hesitate to contact your client relationship manager.

The 5-second summary: Acquisition and partnership at Franklin Templeton, hiring at Global Alpha and team changes at MFS and Fiera Capital.

On June 19, 2023, Franklin Templeton announced an agreement to acquire Putnam Investments and a strategic partnership with Power Corp and Great West. Putnam Investments, a global asset management company with $136 billion in assets under management as of April 30, 2023, is expected to retain its independence while integrating Franklin Templeton’s operations. As for the strategic partnership, Great West becomes a 6.2% shareholder of Franklin Templeton, and is expected to invest $25 billion in Franklin Templeton’s investment activities over the next 12 months.

The Desjardins Insurance Group Retirement Savings Investment Solutions team considers this change as having a moderate impact on the Franklin Templeton Global Real Asset Fund. We’ll monitor the situation over the coming quarters and provide updates as needed.

On June 24, 2023, Global Alpha announced the arrival of Sabrina Lacroix as Compliance Officer. Sabrina has 20 years of experience in compliance and legal affairs, notably with Hexavest in Montreal. Sabrina will assist David Savignac, Portfolio Manager, in the area of compliance. The regulatory role of Chief Compliance Officer will be transferred to her later in the year.

The Desjardins Insurance Group Retirement Savings Investment Solutions team considers this change as having a moderate impact on the Global Alpha Global Small Cap Equity Fund. We’ll monitor the situation over the coming quarters and provide updates as needed.

On July 18, 2023, MFS announced that Jude Jason, Equity Research Analyst, is joining James Neale, Senior Research Analyst, as Energy Team Leader. This news should improve the fund manager’s coverage of the sector, since the energy sector was the only one with a single team leader, while the other sectors had 2.

The Desjardins Insurance Group Retirement Savings Investment Solutions team considers this change as having a moderate impact on the MFS Global Equity Fund. We’ll monitor the situation over the coming quarters and provide updates as needed.

On July 26, 2023, Fiera Capital announced several changes to the team led by Nessim Mansoor, Head of the Canadian Large-Cap Equity Team. Gord O’Reilly, Senior Portfolio Manager, will retire on December 31, 2023. Guneet Sahni, who worked mainly with Gord O’Reilly, will become more involved in other mandates, including Canadian equities in early 2024, and Benjamin Abou joins the team as Analyst.

These changes are seen as positive, given the net addition of talent for Canadian market coverage and since the core team of Nessim, Nicholas Smart and Tony Rozzi remains intact.

The Desjardins Insurance Group Retirement Savings Investment Solutions team considers this change as having a moderate impact on the Fiera Canadian Equity Fund. We’ll monitor the situation over the coming quarters and provide updates as needed.