{"id":19243,"date":"2020-08-14T09:15:24","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T13:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/kitchener-waterloo-multicultural-centre-introduces-db-pension-mid-pandemic-148874"},"modified":"2020-08-14T09:15:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T13:15:24","slug":"kitchener-waterloo-multicultural-centre-introduces-db-pension-mid-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/08\/14\/kitchener-waterloo-multicultural-centre-introduces-db-pension-mid-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre introduces DB pension mid-pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Copyright: <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Yaelle Gang, the Canadian Investment Review<\/span> | August 14, 2020 <\/p>\n

While many Canadians likely started the year worried about retirement savings as the markets were ravaged by the coronavirus fallout, some employers continued to introduce new savings offerings to help ensure their employees\u2019 retirement security.<\/p>\n

In May 2020, the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre officially joined the OPSEU Pension Trust\u2019s OPTrust Select, offering its employees a defined benefit plan for the first time.<\/p>\n

Plan members and the employer will each contribute three per cent and members will receive a lifetime guaranteed benefit.<\/p>\n

Read: OPTrust Select welcomes first members<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The 53-year-old organization has grown to between 35 and 40 staff and a budget of about $2.5 million. \u201cWe were very reliant on our various levels of funders, but over the years we\u2019ve also grown a fee-for-service aspect of the organization,\u201d says Lucia Harrison, chief executive officer of the centre. \u201cWe provide interpretation services [at] very competitive not-for-profit rates, but it provides us with a revenue that we have more discretion on how that revenue is used.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre had talked about pensions for years, she says. \u201cWe had people in doing presentations, encouraging people to invest in [registered retirement savings plans]. We just weren\u2019t able to cover the cost of a pension plan in the earlier years when we were so reliant on our funders because the funders typically don\u2019t provide the funding for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the organization\u2019s revenue grew, it started to look at pensions more seriously. Then it hired a new director of finance and business who took ownership of the idea and found a solution to offer to staff.<\/p>\n

Read: Tips for moving from a single-employer to a jointly sponsored pension plan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Employees reacted very positively, adds Harrison. \u201cI\u2019ve been working in the not-for-profit sector for over 30 years and, of course, I didn\u2019t have a pension. In looking at our staff now, where we\u2019ve got a whole growing group of younger staff, I think they saw it as kind of a painless way to start investing in the pension.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the work to introduce the pension plan started before the coronavirus hit, the centre was able to keep all staff employed and was able to transition to working from home. No staff indicated financial concern about starting to contribute to a pension fund during the throes of a pandemic.<\/p>\n

Harrison emphasizes the importance of offering a pension to those who don\u2019t have one. \u201cIn the not-for-profit sector especially, where pay levels may not be as high, it\u2019s a benefit that I strongly encourage employers to give to their staff, especially something like OPTrust, which is transferrable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: OPTrust launching new defined benefit pension plan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yaelle Gang, the Canadian Investment Review | August 14, 2020 While many Canadians likely started the year worried about retirement savings as the markets were ravaged by the coronavirus fallout, some employers continued to introduce new...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}