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Re: Transferring Funds from Sunlife DC plan to College DB plan using an app?
Hi All,
I started this process a few weeks ago. Below is some of what
I've been told by Sun Life, BCCPP, CRA, and a financial advisor.
Please check important details with your own tax/financial
advisor! Based on my specific circumstances, my advisor
recommended maximizing my purchase of service.
Best,
Dylan
--
Dylan Cooke, PhD, Assistant
Professor
Dept. of Biomedical Physiology and
Kinesiology
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC,
Canada V5A 1S6
778.782.7667 | dfcooke@sfu.ca
First to Steve's question: Can you buy fewer years than the
statement of cost lists?
Yes. This is a maximum number of years. I have to buy
somewhat less than the maximum because I'm limited by my RRSP
contribution room (see below).
RRSP room limits for cash purchase of years of service
My understanding is that there are no tax consequences of using
RRSP or Sun Life DCP $ to buy years of service. If you want to
maximize your purchase amount and your DCP + RRSP balances total
less than that cost of buying maximum years of service, then you
can also use cash to do this, but how much cash you can use is
limited by your RRSP contribution room. To find your contribution
room, log into your CRA account > tax returns > 2021 notice
of assessment, then look for "available contribution room for
2022". I was told by BCCPP and the CRA that this was the maximum
amount of cash that could be used for service purchase.
Apparently if you contribute cash over your RRSP limit, the CRA
can reject the purchase. You should eventually receive a tax slip
from BCCPP for any cash used to purchase years of service (it's
perhaps equivalent to an RRSP contribution).
Submitting forms
Both BCCPP and Sunlife said that digital signatures on forms
are fine.
I submitted forms to Sun Life using their app. For Sun Life I
think you can only submit images and not PDFs. You can either
take photos with your phone or on a computer, open the PDF in
acrobat > file >export to > image.
Which forms?
This was confusing at first.
I called BCCPP and was told that Sun Life would ask me to have
BCCPP fill out a form but that that wasn't possible. Then I
called Sun Life and indeed they wanted form T2151 filled out
before they sent a cheque. After some more back and forth, BCCPP
said they could fill out T2151 after receiving the cheque from Sun
Life and Sun Life said they could send the cheque before receiving
the form. I hope the messaging by agents is clearer now...
So I ended up filling out and sending form T2151 (supplied by
Sun Life) and the entire statement of cost document (which
includes the "Invoice" form and the "RRSP/RPP Transfer" form). I
sent all of that to both BCCPP and Sun Life. Not sure if this was
overkill.
Dollar amount to enter on BCCPP RRSP/RPP Transfer form
If your Sun Life RPP is invested, the value varies daily, so
the exact number you enter on the Transfer form is not important.
Just specify that you want the whole balance transferred (if
that's what you want).
Latency for Sun Life cheque
I submitted forms on July 8 and was told that the check should
be sent to BCCPP by about July 28. BCCPP said that their system
will show the cheque received after 1-2 weeks. BCCPP encouraged
me to check that they received $ from Sun Life. After BCCPP gets
all $ from Sun Life and you, they begin a process with CRA
verifying that the amount is allowed - this takes many weeks, so
don't delay starting the process.
Contacting BCCPP and Sun Life
I've had pretty short wait times each time I've called BCCPP
and Sun Life
BCCPP: 1-888-440-0111 x1(member of CPP) x4 (buy back), then
enter your "person ID #" (from your statement of cost) 8-4:30p
M-F PT
Sun Life: 1-866-733-8612 x1 x3. 8a-8p ET
You can also message BCCPP the same place where you submit
documents (see above). Latency for written response is 1-2 days
in my experience.
On 2022-07-25 2:20 p.m., Steve Kates
wrote:
Hello colleagues.
I just spoke to a Sunlife representative and she told me that
if we do nothing, SFUs arrangement with Sunlife continues until
we retire or leave SFU.
Anke, I was careful to specify our situation but this sounds
like different advice than what you received.
Comments?
Also - will the College pension allow us to buy fewer years
than what they specify in their communications to us, or do we
have to buy exactly the amount they state? Does anyone know?
who would be a good person to talk to at the college pension
plan to answer this question?
Thanks. Take care, everyone.
Steve