Workshops for SFU Pre-Retirees

Eighty-eight APSA and CUPE members will join our ranks in February, as they chose to take early retirement offers from SFU.

We’re putting on a series of workshops for these new members, starting Friday, January 16, at the Halpern Centre on the Burnaby campus. If you are interested in any of the topics (health and dental benefits, financial planning, emotional and physical transitions), you are welcome to join us. 

Overview

You are invited to sign up for workshops about financial planning, health benefits, and mental adjustments as you enter retirement.

The SFU Retirees Association has organized a series of workshops for SFU staff who are about to retire. These workshops will present useful information and then evolve into a "fireside chat" where everyone is able to ask their own questions about their personal situations. Retirement is often a situation where "you don't know what you don't know," so we hope that the questions and conversations will allow pre-retirees to better prepare for their personal financial needs and goals in retirement.

All workshop panelists and organizers are volunteers from the SFU Retirees Association. We are grateful to Meeting, Event and Conference Services for the free room booking.

We encourage you to attend in person but if you prefer to attend by zoom:
https://sfu.zoom.us/j/83188556008?pwd=7cxySSVOaAw7xZcdceitRbsw60RhYL.1

Handouts and slide decks will be available at the SFU Retirees Association website as we receive them: http://www.sfu.ca/retirees/news-and-events/events/preretirees-workshops-2026.html

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Health and Dental Benefits After Retirement
January 16, 1–3 pm | Halpern Centre 126, SFU Burnaby
Benefits in retirement are complicated and everything depends on which employee group you are in, and when you started at SFU. This session will delve into the basic questions and categories, and also open up other considerations such as travel insurance and when you might want to get secondary medical insurance coverage. One important note: If you are eligible for SFU's dental coverage in retirement, you are not eligible for the Canadian dental plan even if you decline SFU's coverage.
Panelists: Frances Atkinson and Apollonia Cifarelli.

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Financial Planning Session #1
January 23, 1–3 pm | Halpern Centre 126, SFU Burnaby
The biggest financial question of our careers is whether we choose the pension or take the buyout. There will be two sessions to discuss this enormous decision, with plenty of time for you to ask questions about that choice, and any other financial planning concerns.

This Session has been developed by several individuals of the SFURA’s Financial Interest Group (FIG) — Larry Albright, Phil Mah, Bill Wedley and Bruce Brandhorst — with the main feature being an in-depth presentation by a Financial Planner from OdlumBrown.

Presenter: Michael Erez, CPA, CFP®; Vice President, Financial Planning, Odlum Brown Financial Services Limited

Panelists: Bill Wedley, Annette Santos and Shaheen Nanji will each present short talks of how they approached retirement from a financial perspective.

Disclaimer: SFURA volunteers are not financial planning experts. We will share information that may help you make decisions. Because every retiree’s financial situation is unique, we recommend talking to several different financial advisors before you choose one. Additionally, find out how they get paid as that will help you find out if they have any conflicts of interest.
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Financial Planning Session #2
January 30, 1–3 pm | Halpern Centre 126, SFU Burnaby

This session has also been developed by the individuals of the SFURA’s Financial Interest Group with the main feature of a talk by a Financial Advisor (Vi Tang) from OdlumBrown, describing pertinent facts you should know of various financial markets available to you before you make to decision of a buyout or guaranteed retirement salary from SFU prior to your retirement date of 28 February, 2026.

Presenter: Vi Tang, Portfolio Manager, Odlum Brown Financial Services Limited

Panelists: Bruce Brandhorst, Jay Burr, and Larry Albright will each present short talks of how they approached retirement from a financial perspective and why they made the choices they did.

Disclaimer: SFURA volunteers are not financial planning experts. We will share information that may help you make decisions. Because every retiree’s financial situation is unique, we recommend talking to several different financial advisors before you choose one. Additionally, find out how they get paid as that will help you find out if they have any conflicts of interest.

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Mental and Physical Transitions to Retirement
February 6, 1–3 pm | Halpern Centre 126, SFU Burnaby

We've all looked forward to retirement — sleeping in, going for unscheduled walks, seeing old friends, and finally taking the time for ourselves. But the general advice is to retire TO something, whether it's scheduling yourself into fitness classes, regular meetups with family and friends, finding crafting classes, volunteering for a favourite community group, or all the bucket list items you have put off. Another key tip is to stay connected to people and learn new things, as that will keep your brain active and less likely to be vulnerable to dementia.

Dr. Andrew Wister (SFU Gerontology) will speak briefly with tips for ageing well , then a panel of CUPE and APSA retirees will share their experiences of entering retirement and adjusting to a new pace of life that can be busier than when you were working. Moderator: Gladys We. Speaker: Andrew Wister, Gerontology. Panelists: Enrique Cruz, Gwen Litchfield, Sheilagh MacDonald, Tamra Morley and Catherine Price. Guest speaker: Mike Vetterli.

Useful links:

• The Retirement Crisis No One Warns You About: Mattering
  Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2026
• LifestyleRX program — Free in BC, AB and ON. The motto of this program is "better, not perfect" and there are group sessions to coach you on gradual lifestyle changes. See "all programs" for the chronic conditions they address. 

Documents shared at the workshops will be uploaded below

Recordings are available. Please email retirees@sfu.ca for the private links for the recordings.

January 16 Workshop

January 23 Workshop