Friday, 18 November 2011

 Logan Katz LLP wants to bring meaningful, current information to our clients and contacts. The Pooled Registered Pension Plan (PRPP) legislation announcement this week is summarized in the article below. We are following the PRPP issue and will provide further details once they are available.

POOLED REGISTERED PENSION PLAN ACT

The federal government introduced legislation in Parliament yesterday outlining the federal portion of the proposed Pooled Registered Pension Plan (PRPP).  The framework for the PRPP came about in December 2010 after prior research showed that certain Canadian households are not saving adequately for retirement.

The PRPP would be designed as a voluntary, administratively low-cost option to meet Canadians’ retirement income needs, especially to those who do not have access to an employer sponsored pension plan, including those who are self-employed.

Regulated financial institutions would act as third party administrators and take over most of the responsibilities that are normally held by the employer for traditional pension plans, acting in a fiduciary role to plan members, and disclosing plan provisions and investment performance in plain language. The administrators of PRPPs would be responsible for creating a low-cost option for a large group along with a number of other manageable investment options.

Employers would be responsible for the selection of a specific plan and the enrolment of their employees who choose to participate. As PRPP’s would be defined contribution pension plans, employers would select a default contribution rate, which would designate the amount to be deducted on a regular basis from participating employees’ paycheques. It will be decided on a jurisdictional basis whether employers are required to make contributions.

The plan would also carry fewer restrictions on portability meaning it could be easily moved to another retirement savings vehicle or be stopped altogether.

The framework is still awaiting provincial enabling legislation and modifications to the tax rules by the federal government to become fully operational.

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