In this edition
Take our annual employer and member surveys
We launched our employer and member annual surveys on June 6. This year, the surveys are shorter and easier to complete, taking 15 minutes or less. Share your opinions about the CAAT Pension Plan so we can create a better tomorrow for members and employers.
Employer Survey
Participate in our employer survey to share your feedback about our strategy, products and services. Please use the link you received via email on June 6.
Member Survey
Active members received a link via email and retired members received a postcard in the mail with the link to the survey. Encourage your employees to complete the survey to share their feedback about the Plan and our services.
Both surveys will close on July 25, so don’t miss your chance to give us your feedback!
Catch up on the Pensions for Everyone conference
On May 11, CAAT held our inaugural Pensions for Everyone conference, in a new virtual format. This year’s conference featured CAAT’s 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 session recordings and details on what we’re doing at the Plan to make your future better.
Watch the videos to:
- Learn about CAAT’s performance
- Discover what pensions mean for members
- Learn how CAAT provides value to employers
- Hear why Canadian employers and employees are choosing DB plans
Visit the hub
Your Q&A corner
Welcome to your Q&A corner, where we’ll answer your burning questions about CAAT. To help keep you informed, we're featuring one or two employer questions in each issue.
Q: We have part-time staff who were eligible to join the Plan when they were hired, but decided not to join. We’d like to remind them that they can still join if they choose. What would you suggest we do?
A: CAAT wants to ensure that part-time and contract employees are aware of the valuable defined benefit pension that’s available to them. You can direct your employees to the Enrolment made easy section of our website, which gives them an overview of what they can expect if and when they join.
We'd love to help you keep your employees informed. CAAT's mission to expand pension coverage to more Canadians absolutely includes your part-time and contract employees. So, please reach out directly to your employer Pension Analyst to get that conversation started and to ask any other questions you may have.
We want to hear from you!
Read this if... you are an Ontario college employer
This summer, CAAT’s Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Rorwick, will kick off his executive outreach and will meet with finance and HR leaders from the 24 Ontario colleges over June, July and August.
During these meetings, he will share information about the enhancements to the DBprime and DBplus Plan designs that are coming in 2025. He will also ask for any feedback about CAAT and share ways we can help employers.
Send us your feedback
If you have positive feedback about CAAT or concerns you want to raise, we're always ready to listen. If you don’t have the opportunity to speak with Kevin directly over the summer, your employer Pension Analyst is always available to hear your comments and take action when needed.
Summer series member learning sessions are here
This summer, CAAT is offering member learning sessions called A future you can count on: Your CAAT Pension.
These presentations give your employees the opportunity to ask questions and learn about their CAAT pension. They’re perfect for new members who have been in the Plan for five years or less, and a great refresher for every member who wants to know why their pension is a big deal.
The webinars will take place on:
English
- June 22, 2023: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
- July 6, 2023: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
- August 8, 2023: 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
French
- June 29, 2023: 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
- August 10, 2023: 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Encourage your members to sign up for an upcoming session directly on our website:
Register now
Book a customized session for your members today
We continue to receive requests from employers and are booking customized sessions covering the following topics:
- A future you can count on: Your CAAT Pension
- Retirement planning
- DBprime pension purchases
- DBplus pension purchases
Members can always learn more about what their CAAT pension provides – the more they know, the more they’ll value their defined benefit pension.
Book your customized learning session for your employees today by emailing your request to:
Presentations
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 28)
This webinar will update you on the growth of the Plan, news and announcements, upcoming events, reminders and more.
Education learning session – Contribution remittance using PAL (July 12)
This session is for employers who use Payroll-Based Reporting (PBR) and will demonstrate how you can submit your monthly contribution remittance forms using PAL.
Education learning session – Eligibility and enrolment of Plan members (July 13)
This session will provide an overview of the Plan's eligibility rules and the enrolment process steps.
Employer survey ends (July 25)
Be sure to log in and complete the survey before it closes.
Updates and reminders
Annual statement update
The first five months of the year are always very busy as our CAAT teams and our administration partners prepare annual statements for all members.
This year, we’re pleased to report that we reached our goal to send 95% of 2022 annual pension statements by May 31!
- Active members: Starting with early distribution in February this year, 95% of all active statements, including those prepared by our administration partners, were completed by May 31. The remaining statements, which need special handling, will be mailed by June 30.
- Retired members: All statements were completed by April 30.
- Deferred members: All statements were completed by May 31.
- Extension of Membership (EOM): Statements will be sent out by June 30.
Thank you for sending the June 30 retirement applications
Read this if... you are an Ontario college employer
A big thank you to all employers who sent us your June 30 retirement applications as early as possible. We’ve received 196 retirement applications for members retiring as of June 30. The deadline for completed retirement election packages and supporting documents was June 14 to set up the pension payment for July 1.
We will have a special payment run again this year for any completed retirement elections we receive after June 14. We will process any packages we receive until 3 p.m. ET on June 28. These will be processed for payment on July 6.
Cyclical termination reporting for OTRFT members
Read this if... you are an Ontario college employer
Non-contributing (NC) reporting identifies OTRFT members who did not contribute to the Plan in the last 12 months. While CAAT previously completed this process once a year, we now complete it three times a year so that members receive pension information much sooner.
The deadline for reporting data for non-contributing OTRFT members was May 31. Based on the information reported to us for 384 members, CAAT is now preparing an EOM notification letter, termination package or retirement package for each member based on their age and the date that their EOM period is ending.
We want to thank all employers who have submitted data for this cyclical process.
If you have not yet had the opportunity to complete this work, we ask you to submit this information via PAL as soon as possible.
New enrolment feature for members
Starting July 1, CAAT is introducing an improved enrolment experience for members.
Please let your new members know that they will receive an email from CAAT to register for CAAT’s My Pension portal. Once they sign up and log in, they’ll have an opportunity to complete their enrolment.
By inviting members to get to know My Pension from day one, our goal is to enable opportunities for members to learn more about the value of their pension.
What’s new in PAL
Read this if… you are an employer who works directly with CAAT who uses PAL
Contribution remittance via PAL
During the last month, we've been rolling out the new process for entering your monthly contribution remittance information directly in the Pension Administration Link (PAL).
For employers submitting data annually using CAAT's Data Collection Tool (DCT), we offered an education session on May 9. If you missed it, you can view the recording here:
Contribution remittance using PAL – recording for DCT employers
An education session for employers using Payroll-Based Reporting (PBR) is scheduled for July 12. You will receive an invitation by email.
PAL is your partner designed to make pension administration tasks faster and easier. Connect with us if you have questions or experience any issues.
PAL sign in
New reporting feature on the way
We’re always looking for ways to enhance PAL to make your experience even better.
Currently, we are working on adding a new feature that will allow you to pull specific reports to help manage your pension administration tasks. In 2024, we expect to offer the option to build customized reports as well. We will share further updates in future issues of the Employer News.
Planned outages for PAL in 2023
PAL will be unavailable from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on these dates while we undergo planned maintenance:
Wednesday June 21
Wednesday July 19
Wednesday August 16
Wednesday September 13
Wednesday October 11
Wednesday November 8
Wednesday December 6
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 the next year, we’re planning on adding more exciting features to improve PAL functionality. It’s an innovative platform that continues to expand and put information into a single, unified experience for you. Reach out to your employer Pension Analyst to share your thoughts at any time.
Help us reach more Plan Ambassadors
You’ve seen firsthand how impactful a DB pension is to your employees’ financial health and retirement planning. But right now, only about 27% of Canadians have access to one. At CAAT, we believe that pensions are for everyone, and we have a solution to help more Canadians get workplace pension coverage.
With your help, we’re looking to help spread the message that CAAT is part of the solution as the only modern DB plan in Canada that is open to employers in any industry.
You can help by engaging your employees to become a Plan Ambassador! When they join, they’ll see how pensions improve the lives of all Canadians through information sent directly to their inbox.
Help us spread our message that pensions are for everyone.
Learn more
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Can’t get enough Contributors? Look out for the next episode on June 21!
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