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

Dear Colleagues:

I've found this exchange illuminating but still have a question. Let me first say some of the things I think I understand properly, and then I'll raise my question:

First, whether to buy service years depends primarily on one's stage in the career. For someone like me, very close to retirement, it's probably best to just take your money and manage it at some institution. For someone early in the career, it's probably best to fully move to the BCCPP.

Second, for many years, I've been depositing my RRSP funds in my own banking institution, not at Sunlife. So, at this point, I have similar amounts at both places.

Third, if I leave what I accumulated through SFU at Sunlife, I do understand that the funds will continue to be invested and produce yields, etc. But here's where my question emerges: will the fees for these funds at Sunlife continue to be charged at lower groups rates, as they were for SFU? If not, then it's probably indifferent whether I leave them there or merge them with those from my other institution at which I have a personal investment advisor with whom I can meet in person, etc. I like this relationship but I'm not sure what is more advantageous. Any thoughts on this?

Best, Gerardo

Professor Gerardo Otero

School for International Studies

Simon Fraser University
7200-515 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC Canada V6B 5K3

Tel. Off: +1-778-782-4508

Website: http://www.sfu.ca/people/otero.html

Current SunLife accounts (your legacy pension account, your group RRSP) are not frozen. Assuming that your current balances will “never grow” is a recipe for potentially making some very poor financial decisions. Your balances are still invested in whatever funds you instructed them to be invested in, whether that is the SFU Balanced Fund or some other mix of available funds. You are also able still to contribute to them and balances will rise and fall in accordance with your contributions and the gains and losses of your investments. It’s easy enough to figure this out by logging in to your account and noticing your gains or losses over the last ~13 months that you have been a member of the CPP.

Whether or not SunLife will require those plans ultimately to be closed is a different question, one I have heard different answers to. It is clear from the foregoing that if you choose to move money out of one of your current accounts in order to buy service in the CPP, then you must move all the money from that account. But if you are choosing not to buy service from the CPP, then your account remains as described above unless and until SunLife decides to close all legacy accounts and requires you to put your money elsewhere.

***************

Dr. Dai Heide

Senior Lecturer

Dept. of Philosophy

Simon Fraser University

On Jul 28, 2022, at 2:05 PM, Steve DiPaola <sdipaola@sfu.ca> wrote:

Question for the group.

If you are not doing any fund transfers ( buy backs - even if you are) and simply want to understand the current state/amount of your SFU retirement plan. My understanding is, it is the combination of: your current frozen Sunlife amount ( now closed will never grow) plus your CPP amount which is based on and will grow on years at SFU. That said there are huge questions about if the amounts can be calculated correctly now and other issues :

- How long will this money sitting in your SunLife account be maintained by SFU (is there guarantees the amount and service center will stay).

- I was told that the CPP calculator (estimator) is not accurate but will it be one day - is it now?

- Sun Life and CPP have very different policies on many things like how your spouse is treated, issue if you die, ...

These are hard to reconcile.

- There is now clear tool or place to get accurate answers as Sunlife/CPP sites/call center reps are given different answers to us all about the same policy or deferring answer and saying look elsewhere.

- We were told this was all in flux because of bargaining/final amounts/etc , so just wait till SFU clean it up including this like tg CPP calculator - When is that?

So is this still in flux - that even without buybacks - is there a clear way to know the current details / amounts of your retirement benefits.

Am I wrong - can we have a clear way to know. Would love a new info page or workshop. Or your best guess.

- Steve DiPaola, PhD - -
- Prof: Sch of Interactive Arts & Technology (SIAT);

- Past Director: Cognitive Science Program;

- - Simon Fraser University - - -

research site:   ivizlab.sfu.ca

art work site:   www.dipaola.org/art/

our book on: AI and Cognitive Virtual Characters
At Simon Fraser University, we live and work on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and in SFU Surrey, Katzie, Kwantlen, Kwikwetlem (kʷikʷəƛ̓əm), Qayqayt, Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Tsawassen, and numerous Stó:lō Nations.

On Thu, Jul 28, 2022 at 11:31 AM Ronda Arab <ronda_arab@sfu.ca> wrote:

One more thing that might be useful to people:

If you are transferring RRSP funds from Sun Life to the College Pension Plan (as opposed to DCP funds), you have to fill out a T2033. Sun Life sent one to me, and I've attached it here.

Since the T2033 is a CRA form, I assume you have to use it to transfer RRSP funds from any financial institution you have them in, not just Sun Life.

Best,

Ronda

Dr. Ronda Arab

Associate Professor of English

Simon Fraser University

pronouns: she/her

From: Anke Kessler <akessler@sfu.ca>
Sent: 27 July 2022 13:01
To: Dylan Cooke
Cc: academic-discussion@sfu.ca
Subject: Re: Transferring Funds from Sunlife DC plan to College DB plan using an app?

Dylan, thanks for the detailed info, very helpful.

Note everyone that Dylan is doing a full buyback.

For partial buyback, I was told from multiple independent sources

1. You must close your SFU DCPP account.

2. You do not need the form T2151

Cheers,

A

Anke Kessler (she/her)
Professor and Chair | Department of Economics
Simon Fraser University | West Mall Complex
8888 University Dr.. Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6

T: +1-778-782-3443 | http://www.sfu.ca/~akessler/

<sfu-horizontal.png>

Located on territories of the Tsleil Waututh (səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ), Kwikwetlem (kʷikʷəƛ̓əm), Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw) and Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) Nations.

On Jul 25, 2022, at 4:32 PM, Dylan Cooke <dfcooke@sfu.ca> wrote:

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 BCCPP through their website, https://myaccount.pensionsbc.ca/ > mail icon (envelope in circle) left of your name at top right.

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