Plan Advisors - Overview

For over 20 years, we have heard most estate planning and benefit Plan Advisors repeatedly say, “We don’t have the necessary time or expertise to serve the pension plan marketplace, and besides, other products pay us more”. Workplace Pension Solutions (Canada) Inc. (WPS) can provide solutions for each of these concerns. Let us show you how we can save you time, increase your bottom line, improve your firm’s value proposition and safeguard your business from the competition. We ensure confidentiality and always act in the best interest of our CAP Associate Plan Advisors.

We refer all opportunities for individual life insurance, living benefits, group life and health insurance, segregated fund, mutual fund or securities selection sales to our Associate Plan Advisors. At WPS, our only focus is the employer sponsored savings plan business, which would also include a collector plan that provide terminating plan members with personal RRSPs, RRIFs, LIFs and Annuities.

We cannot overstate our will to remain independent. By choosing to work with WPS, together we bridge the service gap created by the consolidation within the pension service provider industry. As a team, we can regain the levels of service that are typically reserved for only those few Plan Advisors that have large blocks of group pension business.

Plan Advisors - Business Scope

The Workplace Pension Solutions promise is to stick to their knitting.

Our professional Associate Plan Advisors bring to the table many years of education and experience in providing expertise in the areas of estate and financial planning, group insurance and wealth management. To add depth to this diversity of professional services, WPS will support the Associate Plan Advisor in coordinating the safe management within one or all of the following classifications inside an employer sponsored savings plan:

For the Executive

Individual Pension Plan
Retirement Compensation Arrangement or Secular Trust
Self-Directed Registered Retirement Savings Plan

For Management Staff

Structured Group Registered Retirement Savings Plan
Employee Stock Purchase Plan
Employee Income Trust Purchase Plan
Deferred Profit Sharing Plan
Non-Registered Thrift Plan

For Salaried and Hourly Staff

Defined Contribution Registered Pension Plan
Deferred Profit Sharing Plan
Structured or Voluntary Group Registered Retirement Savings Plan
Employee Stock Option Plan
Employee Income Trust Purchase Plan
Non-Registered Thrift Plan

Plan Advisors - Support Services

Workplace Pension Solutions will initially assist their Associate Plan Advisors with the creation of a business strategy for the acquisition of new employer sponsored savings plan clients. Within the engagement, WPS will act only in the best interests of their Associate Plan Advisor, which means an added level of new prospecting for all lines of business within the savings and insurance marketplace.

WPS has developed a package of support documents and procedures closely tied to the Joint Forum and CAPSA Guidelines in which all facets of plan management can be customized for each new situation:

Request for Proposal (RFP) asks up to 150 questions that investigate areas of interest, though, we may decide that only 30 or 50 questions are necessary.
Cost Benefit Analysis summarizes the pertinent competitor information in an orderly and measurable fashion so the Retirement Plan Committee (RPC) can make clear decisions.
Statement of Plan Management Policies & Procedures and it's accompanying RPC Agenda easily navigates through the complexities of the increasingly higher expectations of regulators.
Life Insurance Company Pooled Fund Performance Survey monitors the performance of your fund manager and their managed funds against their direct competition and stated benchmarks on a quarterly frequency.
Additional support documents assist in meeting and exceeding the requirements of the Guidelines.

Terminating employees and their beneficiaries will need plain and timely reporting on their options. WPS will work closely with the "Associate" Plan Advisor to ensure participating employees know the proper administrative procedures. Once contact is made, the exiting employee will receive professional, unbiased one-on-one counseling.

What We Do:

Workplace Pension Solutions (Canada) Inc. is anindependent and dedicated Capital Accumulation Plan resource centre. We specialize in new group retirement plan business development and effective retirement plan maintenance including analytical research in support of Advisors and Sponsors.

Did You Know:

As of June 28, 2005, Canadians are able to invest their retirement savings in foreign assets without any limitation. Up to now, investors within tax favoured registered savings plans could skirt around the old 30% Foreign Property Rule by using derivatives products or clone funds or investing 70% in a 100% Canadian eligible fund that held 30% foreign content plus another 30% in a pure foreign content fund which then equaled 51% foreign content between the two funds.

A recent RBC Financial Group RRSP survey found only 5% of Canadian investors achieved the maximum foreign content and that 35% had no foreign content at all. The average Canadian holds about 11% of foreign content within their registered savings accounts.

Interestingly, investors in the UK and USA who have never experienced a foreign investment limit rule, tend to invest close to home as well.

Under the old rule, a Large Cap Canadian equity manager could choose from about 25 public stock companies within the S&P TSX Index. Without borders, these same managers will be able to search the world over for promising Large Cap equities. The S&P 500 and S&P Mid-Cap 400 will be a good start!

The US, UK and Asian equity markets surged in 2004. The total assets invested in such markets moved above $7 trillion for only the second time in history.