National Bank of Canada (TSX:NA) has obtained approval to offer the new Voluntary Retirement Savings Plan (VRSP) to all employers, employees, individual savers and professional associations in Quebec.
In order to meet the particular needs of each of these groups, the bank, through its subsidiary National Bank Trust (NBT), has developed a simple, easy-to-implement solution.
“We’ve set up a special telephone line so that our team can answer questions about the VRSP and even complete enrolment over the phone,” explained Steeve Gagné, assistant vice president, group retirement plans, National Bank.
A dedicated website, nbtvrsp.ca, was also created to centralize all necessary information about the new plan and NBT’s offer. People can also enrol in a VRSP online.
“We offer a turnkey investment option, which is based on a “life cycle” approach. With this option, risk is adjusted as plan members get closer to retirement. However, for those who want to build their own portfolios, we offer five other options, and members can choose from index-linked funds, bond funds and GICs,” added Gagné.
Quebec legislation respecting VRSPs, which came into effect on July 1, currently extends to companies with 20 or more eligible employees. Unless they already offer a retirement savings plan to their employees, these companies will have until Dec. 31, 2016 to set up their own VRSP. Companies with 10 to 19 eligible employees, for their part, will have until Dec. 31, 2017 to do the same, while companies with five to nine eligible employees will have to follow suit by a date to be determined, not before Jan. 1, 2018.
“Because enrolment is automatic for all eligible employees of companies that offer the VRSP, we expect a high rate of participation. Those who participate will be glad they did, and if they begin contributing early in their career, they’ll be able to look forward to a comfortable retirement,” said Gagné.