Manulife Financial has launched an online resource to help plan sponsors manage governance requirements for employee group savings plans in Canada, specifically to deal with Capital Accumulation Plan (CAP) Guidelines that come into effect Jan 1, 2006.

The CAP Guidelines Centre, which is a component of the Online Support Centrem helps sponsors compile a CAP Guidelines Report and demonstrate compliance with the Guideline. A direct link to Manulife’s administrative system supplies plan-specific detail and saves the sponsor the effort of recreating key portions of the Report.

“In our discussions with plan sponsors, we heard repeated concerns about the difficulty and effort required in building a CAP Report for their plans. Sponsors want to ensure they demonstrate compliance and create an archive to illustrate the plan’s continuing efforts to achieve good governance,” says Mike Doughty, senior vp of Canadian Pension Operations.

Sponsors can use the Centre to produce an annual report and archive information that confirms activities they have completed over time to demonstrate good governance.

Since plan sponsors are expected to be in compliance with the CAP Guidelines by year end, good governance practices are top of mind for sponsors of all types of group savings and pension plans.

“For most plan sponsors, documenting efforts to satisfy the CAP Guidelines presents the biggest challenge. We wanted to remove the guesswork and provide a tool to streamline that process,” explains Bill Sipes, the marketing director who played a lead role on the project.

The Online Plan Governance Support Centre offers other resources including checklists for reviewing investments and service providers, Manulife’s compliance statement, plus annual Section 5900 Reports: the tools plan sponsors need to help them ensure good governance of their Capital Accumulation Plans.