Re: Faculty Pension Options - Follow-up with some information that came out of a public discussion on Monday Nov. 19th

[Julian Christians <julian_christians@sfu.ca>]

Hi
While the BCCPP is not fossil fuel free, it does have a policy regarding responsible investing:
https://college.pensionsbc.ca/responsible-investing
Cheers
Julian

________________________________________
From: George Agnes <george_agnes@sfu.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2018 6:03 PM
To: George Agnes
Cc: academic-discussion@sfu.ca
Subject: Re: Faculty Pension Options - Follow-up with some information that came out of a public discussion on Monday Nov. 19th

And a few additional pieces of information;

On Nov 21, 2018, at 5:33 PM, George Agnes <george_agnes@sfu.ca<mailto:george_agnes@sfu.ca>> wrote:

All,

Some of the information that was discussed on Monday’s open forum is;

(a) professional financial planners queried, and people who understand person finances better than I, have been unanimous is advising all individuals to
"obtain professional advice prior to casting your vote".
 And to emphasize this point, I quote from one of our colleagues, sample questions to ask yourself and your financial planner are;
 “ -What is the overall ROI / value that I expect to get from each option (based on contributing the same amount of income)?
- Should  I be more concerned about the amount of capital available at retirement or the predictability of my income in retirement?
- Is this my only source of retirement income?  Do I have other means to 'smooth' my retirement income?
- Do I expect to have longevity risk (risk of out living my savings)?
- Either way, do I need / want some of my income to be guaranteed?
- Do I want to be locked into contributing at this level from a cash flow perspective, or would I prefer to plan to contribute voluntarily each year and have the flexibility to adjust my contributions based on my cash flow needs?
- Do I want to be able to pass on a legacy to someone other than my spouse? Do I need this vehicle to be able to do that?
- How do I feel about the governance of each option?
- Personally, I'm also asking which vehicle has the greater potential to align with my values around responsible investment. “

(b) Related to (a), if you are unable to be as informed as you think you should be prior to casting your vote, do not remain silent, write to the senior executive of SFUFA explaining your situation and ask for a delay in the date of closure of the vote.

(c) Everyone should familiarize themselves with the information contained on the BCCPP webpages regarding payout selections at retirement.
If you have a partner, you are automatically categorized into Joint-Life Option, and the ‘entitlement rate’ is shown below.   For your own situation,
Plug this into the formula, maximum annual benefit = (rate from table below) x (average best five years salary) x (number of years serviced);

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(Thanks to Dr. F. Lee for doing the background work and providing the above table.)
There is an analogous table in the SFUFA FAQs.

(d) Please vote.

On behalf of Dr. TIm Beischlag and I, and the participants in the Monday forum, we hope this information is helpful.

George Agnes

(e)  There was also a discussion regarding responsible investment.
With respect to the BCCPP, "at present, there is no way to guide BCCPP away from investing in, e.g., fossil fuel industries".
With respect to the DCPP that we are all currently in, as per the email distributed on Tuesday November 20 from Allyson Dallas (on behalf of Dr. Stephanie Bertels), there is an option for a ‘fossil fuel free fund’. If you didn’t read that email, check your email for that message, titled 'Background on the SFU Academic Pension Plan: Understanding your Defined Contribution Plan’.

(f) regarding point (b) above, here is a link to all the email addresses of the exec:
http://www.sfufa.ca/about/executive/current-executive-committee/