# Retirement Plan Changes and Decisions



## Shelley76 (Jun 27, 2013)

Hello all,

Recently the organization I work for has changed the retirement plan we have, it's a defined contribution plan. I was hoping you could help me make sense of it. To give you some background about me, I'm married, have two kids, I'm 34 years old, my retirement plan currently has $135,000.00 in it, it is being transferred from Standard Life to Sun Life. I plan to work for about 30 more years, my investor profile is between conservative and moderate. We have no debt (no mortgage etc) but also no other savings. I presently contribute 4%, we can contribute a maximum of 10%, the company matches 50% of your donation up to 2%. We did not have a say in the transfer and our options are fairly limited, here is what the new plan has (sorry it didn't paste so well):

Rates Of Return As Of : 31 May 2013
Fund 1 Month YTD 1 Year 5 Year 
CC&L Group Cdn Q Growth 2.0 7.5 20.8 2.0
BLK LP Index Retirement -0.9 3.0 8.2 4.4
BLK LP Index 2020 Fund -0.7 4.5 11.8 3.4
BLK LP Index 2030 Fund 0.1 6.5 15.9 2.4
BLK LP Index 2040 Fund 0.8 8.0 18.8 1.6
BLK LP Index 2015 Fund -0.8	3.7 9.7 3.4
BLK LP Index 2025 Fund -0.3 5.5 13.8 3.0
BLK LP Index 2035 Fund 0.5 7.3 17.4 2.0
MFS MB Global Equity 4.4 17.2 34.8 N/A
MFS MB Intl Equity 2.3 9.3 29.5 N/A
BLK LP Index 2045 Fund 1.0 8.6 20.0 N/A
BLK LP Index 2050 Fund 1.2 8.7 N/A N/A
B.G. Canadian Equity 3.1 10.0 23.4 5.0
SLF Money Market 0.1 0.4 1.1 1.2
TDAM Cdn Bond Index Fund -1.5 0.2 1.7 5.8
BLK US Equity Index Reg 5.1 19.7 26.9 6.2

So they've essentially scaled back so we had to choose something in these funds. They're pushing us to choose an Index 20** fund and then we'll automatically slide to the next LifePath fund going forward. The actual funds don't transfer from our existing account until late July, we have until then to pick what we'd like.

The Mer fees seem pretty good, as shown below:

Fund Management Fees As Of: 31 May 2013

Fund Annualized Percentage
CC&L Group Cdn Q Growth 0.45 %
BLK LP Index Retirement 0.41 %
BLK LP Index 2020 Fund 0.46 %
BLK LP Index 2030 Fund 0.56 %
BLK LP Index 2040 Fund 0.56 %
BLK LP Index 2015 Fund 0.41 %
BLK LP Index 2025 Fund 0.51 %
BLK LP Index 2035 Fund 0.56 %
MFS MB Global Equity 0.89 %
MFS MB Intl Equity 0.91 %
BLK LP Index 2045 Fund 0.56 %
BLK LP Index 2050 Fund 0.57 %
B.G. Canadian Equity 0.48 %
SLF Money Market 0.19 %
TDAM Cdn Bond Index Fund 0.22 %
BLK US Equity Index Reg 0.22 % 

I'm being told at my age I should be in the Life Path 2030 fund but the performance has been iffy. 

https://grssl.morningstar.ca/global...?slfinp=y&protpcol=https&fundid=78955&popup=y

I'm really looking for some advice and thoughts on the situation, unfortunately I cannot control the boat I'm in, all I can do is pick from these options. I'm investing the minimum with my company to take full advantage of the matching. Everything else I earn will be invested elsewhere so I can have more control over it.

Your help and opinions are very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Shelley


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## Ihatetaxes (May 5, 2010)

Hi Shelley,

My wife's company made the same switch just over a year ago and we chose the Blackrock 2030 Index fund. It's actually a better, lower fee alternative to the Standard Life options she had before. Currently her assets there are less than 10% of our total portfolio so I don't give it too much thought but she does contribute the maximum allowed to take advantage of her employers matching contribution. I don't know if anyone else here is familiar with these products and can chime in for you. FYI it did return 10.6% last year which we were happy with!

http://www.desjardinslifeinsurance....lutions/Documents/rates-return/funds_0304.PDF


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## Shelley76 (Jun 27, 2013)

*More ideas?*

Thank you for your comments, I hope it works out as well as yours has. I was really hoping I would get some recommendations on how to allot my funds and some ideas about that. I'd like to get a dialogue going since I could really use some opinions on this.

Thanks,

Shelley


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