davidsk

Here in the UK, most companies offer private pension on top of the salary. I wonder how the Canadian companies do related to pension.

iaink

It depends on the company, there is no one answer.

Mine does still offer a private pension, but its in a minority I think. Many offer contributory plans to your own or a company sponsored RRSP fund (they will match what you put in for example, up to a preset ceiling), Many do nothing...

davidsk

Thanks, ianik. It is useful. When looking for a job, I need to find out what they offer.

debbiem

matched rrsp contributions up to 4% of earnings here... (needily interested to know if that's average, now...)

Atlantic Xpat

My first employer in Canada provided a private, final salary scheme but then they were formerly a govt owned company. IMHO only the government and associated agencies will offer final salary schemes now. RRSP = Money purchase scheme in the UK. 3% salary matching common, I now have 5% and I had one interview for a job where they matched up to 7.5%. (An oil service company). If you above 3% you are doing well IMHO.

iaink

My present employer still does.

Dont know how vulnerable I am to them changing their mind about that though and deciding to drop it... In some respects at least with an RRSP contribution scheme you are to some extent master of your own destiny.

Steve_P

CP Rail still offers a defined benefit pension plan. I don't know of any others though.

britsnake

In my current company they have a final salary scheme (it is an associated agency as it is 100% government funded)

Each employee pays a percentage of their income, then the employer has to make sure that there is enough money in the pot to pay all our pensions when we retire.

Last year we had a bit of a pension scare. With the global recession, the pension pot was at 70% of what it needed to be. In order to avoid having to pay millions of dollars extra into the pot, all the employees had to sign a letter stating we were willing to give them an extra year to get it to the level it needed to be at.

debbiem

Thank you! I feel less needy now

Almost Canadian

I have worked for a number of law firms and none of them made any form of contribution to their employees' RRSPs.

davidsk

That is quite surprising!

ChrisBoar

Yep, my wife works for the Red Cross here and they match her contributions into an RSP.

Just as well really given the scandalous management charges that Canadian mutual funds charge that basically halve your returns over the long term.

Alan2005

I get a pension - I can't remember the details exactly. Not that it matters - this is what's going to happen to our pensions.

ChrisBoar

Well depends on what investments you put your pension funds in. Canadian Mutual funds have some of the highest expenses in the world. I ran some scenarios on my pension fund, $200,000 growing at 8% for 25 years with a management fee of 2.89%

I lost a PHENOMENAL $670,000 to FEES over 25 years! 50% of my growth was gone!

That's the wonder of compound growth.

I imagine most Mutual fund investors have no idea of the long term effect of these fees.

My personal strategy will be the Couch Potato strategy. Investing in very low cost index funds for my self directed RSP.

http://canadiancouchpotato.com/

Alan2005

Good luck getting 8% every year for the next 25 years. You are more optimistic than me - even on the assumption of any year on year growth at all over those time scales, let alone 8%.

The way I see it is that the can was kicked down the road in 2008, but the problems with the financial system still exist. We will see a worse crisis at some point in the not to distant future - possibly related to sovereign debt. Expect to lose everything - it's only paper anyways