In this edition
What’s new at CAAT
CAAT celebrates milestone reaching 100,000 members
CAAT Pension Plan’s mission continues to reach new heights as the Plan celebrates 100,000 members in Q2 2024. The achievement demonstrates the importance of bringing retirement income security to more Canadians and the Plan sends its appreciation to its participating employers and partners for playing a role in helping to build a better tomorrow for Canada, today.
Since its inception in 1967, CAAT’s membership has increased significantly. In the last decade alone, membership has spiked by 60,000 (+150%). Today, the Plan proudly serves more than 440 participating employers in 20 industries including the for-profit, non-profit and broader public sectors.
Pensions for Everyone Conference Hub
Thank you to everyone who attended our Pensions for Everyone Conference on May 2, 2024! This year’s conference featured CAAT’s annual performance update, educational breakout sessions, and an exclusive fireside chat with our CEO and Plan Manager, Derek Dobson.
If you were unable to attend or want a recap, our conference resource hub gives you access to all the session recordings and details on what we’re working on to make the future better for you and your members.
Visit the hub and watch the videos to:
- Learn about CAAT’s 2023 performance
- Discover how the Plan makes members’ lives simpler and more secure
- Learn how a CAAT pension puts employers ahead in the marathon for talent
- Hear about CAAT’s latest innovation: GROWTHplus
CAAT to launch GROWTHplus Investment Account by end of 2024
At the annual Pensions for Everyone Conference, CAAT’s CEO and Plan Manager, Derek W. Dobson, announced plans to launch GROWTHplus.
GROWTHplus is a new member retirement savings account that will give members an opportunity to save more with the Plan. Derek shared three key details about the new offering during the fireside chat session:
- GROWTHplus is voluntary and will be made available to all CAAT members upon launch
- CAAT will work directly with members who wish to participate to set up their account
- Employers will not need to contribute to the additional account
More details on GROWTHplus will be made available in the coming months. Sign up to the mailing list to stay up to date.
Share your feedback through our annual surveys!
We launched our employer and member annual surveys on May 30, 2024 and we’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
CAAT’s annual surveys help us innovate and shape the future of the Plan. By partnering with employers and members and listening to your feedback, we can create a better tomorrow.
Member Surveys
Active members received a link to their surveys via email. Retired members received a postcard or an email with the link to participate. Help us encourage your employees to complete the survey to share their feedback about the Plan and our services.
Employer Survey
Share your feedback on our strategy, products and services. You received a link to the survey on May 30 via email. If you didn’t receive the link, contact your Pension Analyst.
Both surveys will close mid-July, so don’t miss your chance to share your thoughts with us!
Recruitment Toolkit customized sessions
We want to support you in leveraging your CAAT pension to enhance your recruitment, retention and total rewards strategy with a virtual call with one of our pension experts.
During this 30-minute customized session, we will show you how to effectively use the Recruitment Toolkit on your Careers websites, along with other ways you can use the Plan to your advantage.
Book your session today by sending an email to debora@caatpension.ca!
Member learning sessions
At CAAT, we believe that valuing your workplace pension starts with building awareness. We offer customized member learning sessions for employees to provide an opportunity to ask questions and learn about their CAAT pension.
These presentations are delivered by top pension experts, covering pension fundamentals, features of the CAAT Plan, retirement planning and much more! They’re perfect for new members who want to know why the defined benefit pension you offer is a big deal, and for any member who wants to make sure they can retire with confidence.
Encourage members to register by including a link to our Presentations page in your employee communications.
Presentations
If you are an employer working with a CAAT administration partner, we highly encourage you to book a customized session for your members. Send in your request today by emailing us at presentations@caatpension.ca.
Updates and reminders
Annual statement update
The months leading up to June 30 are always extremely busy as CAAT’s teams and administration partners prepare annual pension statements for members, as required by pension legislation. Statements are a highly valuable financial document for members, providing them with an update on how their pension is growing. We encourage members to review their statements and contact CAAT if there are any errors.
This year brought extra challenges in compiling and sending in data due to last year’s retroactive pay decisions affecting Ontario college employees. Although it was a positive development for those eligible for retroactive pay, it makes the statement process more complex because that data requires additional reviews to ensure accuracy. We appreciate your patience and collaboration with CAAT staff throughout this process.
We’re pleased to report the following updates:
- Active member statements: The team continues to work toward a target delivery date of June 30, 2024.
- Retired member statements: These have been completed and sent out to retired members and surviving member pensioners.
- Deferred member statements: These have been completed and delivered to deferred members.
- Extension of Membership (EOM) statements: We are working on completing these statements by June 30, 2024.
If you work with an administration partner, statements for your retired members have been distributed. All other statements will be distributed by June 30, 2024, with some deferred statements issued in August.
Annual contribution reconciliations
As part of our year-end and annual statement cycle, CAAT prepares annual contribution reconciliations for all participating employers. Enhancements to our reconciliation process are underway and the final reports will be delivered later than previous years, in Fall 2024.
Upon completing the process to confirm 2023 contribution remittance data and identify any under-/over-payments, CAAT provides you with a report indicating if a refund is due or if there is an amount payable. Any refunds determined through the reconciliation process will need to be taken as a credit on your monthly remittance. If you have an amount payable, submit your payment and report the amount owing on your monthly remittance as soon as possible.
Employer Manual update
Read this if… you are an employer who works directly with CAAT and who uses PAL
We’re continuing to improve the Employer Manual to serve you better.
When you log in to the Manual via PAL, you will now see a greeting banner that will indicate your name and organization. You can also log out of the Manual by clicking the profile icon in the top right corner. By logging out each time, you will help to ensure that any recently updated pages will display properly the next time you log in through PAL.
If you work for more than one CAAT employer, you will see a new “Profile Selector” when you log in. It will allow you to select an employer from your drop-down list to ensure that the Manual content displayed to you is correct for that employer. To switch to a different employer, click on the blue bar and select again from your drop-down list.
If you have any questions about the Employer Manual, contact your employer Pension Analyst.
Reminder about member address updates
Read this if… you are an employer who works directly with CAAT and uses payroll-based reporting
Just a quick reminder that it is a member’s responsibility rather than their employer’s responsibility to ensure that CAAT has the member’s current address in our records.
Employers should be providing CAAT with address information only during enrolment.
Members can easily update their address with CAAT using My Pension. Members who do not use My Pension can contact us.
Thanks for sending June 30 retirement applications
Read this if… you are an Ontario college employer
CAAT would like to extend our sincere thanks to all employers who sent in their June 30 retirement applications this spring. We’ve received 395 applications for members retiring as of June 30. As a reminder, the deadline for submitting completed retirement election packages and supporting documents was June 11, 2024, to set up the pension payments for July 1, 2024.
Reporting non-contributing members
Read this if… you are an Ontario college employer
We want to thank all employers who have submitted non-contributing member data by the May 31 deadline. The next deadline in the cycle is October 31, 2024.
The non-contributing (NC) reporting process asks Ontario College employers to report to CAAT any OTRFT member who did not contribute to the Plan in the last 12 months. Based on the information recently reported to us for 464 members, CAAT is now preparing an extension of membership (EOM) notification letter, termination package or retirement package for each member based on their age and the date that their EOM period is ending.
Portal corner
Read this if: you are an employer who works directly with CAAT and your members have access to My Pension
Retire Online is live!
With Retire Online, CAAT has streamlined the retirement process for you and your members. This new feature gives members the ability to elect and manage their retirement options and related documents online through My Pension.
Retire Online won’t change your current online pension application process. But it will give you additional visibility into the member retirement journey, with the ability to track when a member has submitted options and when they’ve completed their retirement process.
Learn more about Retire Online through our handy fact sheet! We recommend encouraging members to activate their My Pension accounts as soon as possible.
Enhancing the member portal experience
CAAT has redesigned the Message Centre in My Pension to make it easier and more intuitive for our members to use.
The new features, launched on May 8, allow members to:
- Easily navigate through and preview messages
- Sort messages by newest/oldest, read/unread, and those with attachments
- Easily and securely attach documents, preview attachments or delete an attachment if necessary
- Search through messages with a more compact search box
We invite you to encourage all members to register for My Pension.
2024 planned outages for PAL
PAL will be unavailable for maintenance from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the following days:
- July 3
- July 31
- August 28
- September 25
- October 23
- November 20
- December 18
We want to hear from you
Have a question, comment or suggestion for us about PAL? Let us know.
Your feedback is important to us. Over the course of this year, we’re planning on adding more exciting features to improve PAL functionality.
PAL is an innovative platform that continues to expand and put information into a single, unified experience for you. Reach out to your Pension Analyst to share your thoughts at any time.
Upcoming events
Mark your calendar for these events. We send invitations straight to your inbox two weeks prior to the event and registration is available on our website.
Quarterly Employer Update—June 25 at 1 p.m.
This webinar will update you about plan news, upcoming events, reminders and more.
Watch your email for an invitation!
Employer education sessions (for employers working directly with CAAT)
- July 23: Eligibility and enrolment of plan members
- For employers with DBprime and DBplus—10 a.m.
- For employers with DBplus only—1 p.m.
This training session will review the enrolment requirements based on the provisions of the Plan and the enrolment process.
For recordings of previous sessions, please visit our Employer Education Guide.
Industry outlook: Gain insights from some of the industry’s forward thinkers
Take a closer look at the latest trends, research and insights across the industry. Share with your employees and network!
How can employers improve mental health in the workplace?
When it comes to improving mental health in the workplace, Mary Ann Baynton, director of collaboration and strategy at Workplace Strategies for Mental Health and an independent consultant for Canada Life says it ultimately depends on what employees express as their needs or their challenges. As for employers, they shouldn’t focus on initiatives around a wellness program. Instead, they should prioritize a policy around it.
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How to unlock human potential in your workforce
“Understanding how to unlock the full potential of your employees is essential for maximizing productivity, fostering innovation, and cultivating a thriving workplace culture,” said Mercer in the whitepaper titled, ‘Strategies for cultivating employee potential and unlocking hidden talent’.”
“When individuals feel empowered and supported to excel in their roles, they not only perform better but also contribute more effectively to the overall success of the organization. By investing in strategies to unleash human potential, businesses can unlock hidden talents, drive employee engagement, and achieve sustainable growth.”
Read now