Re: Transferring Funds from Sunlife DC plan to College DB plan using an app?

[Cedric Chauve <cedric_chauve@sfu.ca>]

Hello

Further to what Cheryl indicated:
- the amount indicated by the excel spreadsheet is the increase of the pension we will get from buying service years, not the full pension amount;
- to have a better idea of the full pension amount, BCCPP has a calculator that indicates the estimated pension under the assumption we do NOT buy service years; it is a "Pension estimator" webpage reachable from the Dashboard after we log into the BCCPP website.  Caveat: according to a BCCPP rep, "The pension estimate is not fixed. It will vary depends on the service and salary that your employer will report to the pension plan every year ... Your monthly pension payment may increase as a result of an annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). This adjustment may be added to your pension to help it keep pace with increases in the cost of living over time. Once a COLA is granted, it becomes part of your lifetime pension. The COLA is also applied to the bridge benefit and the temporary annuity portion of your pension, if applicable. There is no guarantee that a COLA will be granted every year."

I hope this helps

cedric chauve
________________________________________
From: Cheryl Prophet <cheryl_prophet@sfu.ca>
Sent: July 25, 2022 15:55
To: Steve Kates
Cc: Cheryl Prophet; Anke Kessler; Oliver Schulte; academic-discussion@sfu.ca
Subject: Re: Transferring Funds from Sunlife DC plan to College DB plan using an app?

Hello Steve,

This is what I learned  in my many conversations with my Sun Life advisor and with CPP reps. It has been quite a journey and not at all straight forward.

Before filling out the CPP purchase-service-years forms, I spoke to a CPP rep who confirmed that, yes, you can choose fewer years than the amounts indicated on the form. You can decide how much you want to move out of the Sun Life funds into the BC CPP. You are under no obligation to move all your Sun Life DCP funds to them. (Although I expect they would love it if you did).

CPP provides an Excel calculator to help you decide how much you want to invest in CPP and how much you will receive in a monthly pension.

I hope this is helpful.

Cheryl


On Jul 25, 2022, at 2:20 PM, Steve Kates <steven_kates@sfu.ca<mailto:steven_kates@sfu.ca>> 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

On Jul 25, 2022, at 2:03 PM, Cheryl Prophet <cheryl_prophet@sfu.ca<mailto:cheryl_prophet@sfu.ca>> wrote:

 Hello Anke,

I’m responding to your email regarding buying back partial service years and the issue of what happens with the remaining money in the Sun Life DCP Fund. I received different advice from my Sun Life financial advisor. I was informed that after purchasing service years, any remaining money in the DCP can remain in this fund until the end of the year in which I turn 71. Then it must be transferred to a LIF or RRIF fund.

I have already done some of this. To explain, my retirement began last fall, before the buy-back details were available. Because I needed some funds while I was waiting for the offer,  I moved some of my funds from the DCP into a LIF fund.

I have now completed the process of buying back some service years. I filled out the forms and Sun Life mailed them and issued a cheque to the CPP.  There are still funds remaining in my DCP. I now have the option of moving them into a LIF or RRIF within SunLife, or leaving them where they are until the end of the year in which I turn 71.

I hope this makes sense.

Cheryl Prophet


On Jul 25, 2022, at 12:20 PM, Anke Kessler <akessler@sfu.ca<mailto:akessler@sfu.ca>> wrote:

Hello Oliver

I just talked to a Sun Life agent. He told me that, yes, you can submit the documents through the app. Scan or take a picture.

If there is any issue, they would get back to you.

Everyone - also note: even if you only buyback partial service, you have to take all of the remaining money out of the SFU Pension Plan (your RRSP is unaffected by this rule as far as I know).

Hope this helps!


Anke



Anke Kessler (she/her)
Professor and Department Chair | Department of Economics
Simon Fraser University | West Mall Complex
8888 University Dr.. Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6
http://www.sfu.ca/~akessler/
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Located on territories of the Tsleil Waututh (səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ), Kwikwetlem (kʷikʷəƛ̓əm), Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw) and Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) Nations.



On Jul 22, 2022, at 8:00 AM, Oliver Schulte <oschulte@cs.sfu.ca<mailto:oschulte@cs.sfu.ca>> wrote:

Hi all,

as you know we can now buy past years of service by asking Sunlife to transfer funds from our old Defined Contributions Plan to our new BC College Defined Benefit Plan. The College Plan has sent us forms to effect this transfer. I've heard that instead of filling in paper forms and snail mailing them to Sunlife, it's possible to request the transfer using the Sunlife App.

Has anyone managed to do the transfer using the App?

Regards,

Oliver

P.S. Apropos the pension, I'd like to thank our pension plan trustees for all their hard work towards our community.
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