RRSP season is one of the most important times for members to contribute. It helps them reduce taxes today while saving for tomorrow.

You can show members how to take advantage of their Group RRSP with our messages. We’ve prepared them in the following formats:

• Emails
• Poster
• Digital sign
• Video

You can find the messages on your plan sponsor secure site in the Educate your members section.

Reach out to your Manulife representative with any questions.

Looking back, the common themes this year were all about plan member education, financial wellness, and customer convenience. Here’s a quick summary:

Live education webinar series proves popular with members

Over 10,000 people registered for one of our live webinars this year.

The 30-minute sessions are short, simple, and free. The webinars educate members on topics like financial wellness, investments, and retirement readiness. By attending, members gain the confidence to take small steps towards their financial wellness goals.

Encourage your plan members to catch one or more of our upcoming webinars. They can sign up here.

Video series takes a seriously light-hearted look at investing basics

Investing doesn’t have to be complicated. We think everyone can learn the basics. And thousands of plan members are on their way after watching our new series of videos that explain how investments work.

Share these engaging and jargon-free videos with your members today. The Investment Basics series can help everyone start to reach for their retirement goals.

Mobile app and plan member site get fresh new looks

Plan members expect their electronic interactions with their plan to be smooth, seamless, and satisfying. Our digital transformation delivered that in many ways in 2019.

Whether it’s through the easy-to-use mobile app or refreshed website, plan members can work with their plan whenever and however they want to.

Members have new features at their fingertips. And it’s easier to find information, tools, and balances.

People really like the changes we’ve made: Manulife Mobile app had a user rating of 4.4 stars out of 5 in the App store as of November 6 (based on 5,400 ratings).

Nearly 800 Hubs created in 2019 - a guided experience for members

So far this year, 775 custom experiences (a.k.a. the Hub) have been created to help plan members easily find information and make decisions when joining the plan

The Hub is an educational tool that helps create a more confident onboarding experience for employees.

Help your members take their first steps towards financial fitness. Check out the Hub.

Take another look at some of our other stories this year:

Another way to help members save

The Wellness Report – a pulse check for your organization

The Life Moments Team – a white glove service for your members

The Wellness Report is unique. It’s an employee wellness survey that will help show connections between employee health risks and your organization’s operational bottom line.

Your report is designed to include meaningful and comprehensive insights on how your organization is doing, and it will guide you towards next-steps you could take to make some improvements.

Providing this valuable information into your employees and organization is how we’re making decisions easier, lives better, and organizations stronger.

What do we track?

The Wellness Report, powered by Manulife Vitality, measures mental, financial, and physical wellness. We also evaluate employee engagement, productivity, and check the effectiveness of any existing wellness measures you have. It’s one of the most comprehensive reviews you can get.

And yes, the report is included as part of your plan. There’s no extra cost to check the pulse of your organization.

How does it work?

It’s simple.

Register your organization and have your employees finish a 30-minute online survey. It’s completely confidential and every employee will get their own Personal Health Report. It’s a great way to help employees take little steps today so they can be better financially, physically and emotionally.

A few weeks later, you’ll get an organizational report* that includes valuable new information and insights into your employees and organization.

Of course, the insights you get are tied to your employees’ participation. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered to help launch and promote the survey to your employees. You’ll get access to helpful tools and resources thought the Toolkit Centre, like email templates and posters to promote the survey.

How do I sign up?

You can register now for a survey period, and we’ll assess your employees online. The first period opens in February.

Stay on target

The Wellness Report will allow you to measure your progress year-over-year and benchmark your organization against others in your sector or across the country.

To register for The Wellness Report or learn more, visit Manulife.ca/thewellnessreport or contact your Manulife representative.

* we need a minimum of 25 participants to produce a report for privacy and confidentiality reasons

The Vitality Group Inc., in association with The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, provides the Manulife Vitality program. Vitality is a trademark of Vitality Group International, Inc., and is used by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company and its affiliates under license. Health eLinks is a trademark of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, and are used by it and its affiliates under license

Action might be required if you use encryption

As of May 1, our email addresses in Group Retirement Solutions changed from @manulife.com to @manulife.ca.

This change includes Manulife employee email addresses, as well as email addresses used for shared inboxes and various processes.

Manulife is a Canadian company. We started in Canada, and while our business now extends around the world, we’re proud of our Canadian heritage. We’ve adopted the .ca address when communicating with our Canadian customers.

Please update your records

If you haven’t already done so, please make sure email addresses are updated in all relevant contact lists, records, and in processes where emails are auto-generated.

Similarly, if you use one of our Group Retirement Solutions department email addresses (example: ABCdepartment@manulife.com) please begin using the .ca address (ABCdepartment@manulife.ca).

An important note about encryption

If your organization uses encryption, please ask your Technical Services team to re-apply the TLS encryption rule to the @manulife.ca address.

Over time, other areas of Manulife will also adopt the .ca email address. If you are affected, you will receive information about the timing of those changes when they are scheduled.

On May 7, 2019, Manulife announced brand changes across its global investment management business. As part of these changes, Manulife Asset Management is now Manulife Investment Management.

Overall, the changes will help create clarity and stronger brand recognition of Manulife’s full lineup of investment products and solutions.

What does this mean for our group retirement customers?

Nothing will change for plan sponsors or members other than seeing the new Manulife Investment Management brand on some marketing materials, and seeing the Manulife Investment Management name in open-end fund names. For example, “Manulife Asset Management Strategic Income Pooled Fund” will become “Manulife Investment Management Strategic Income Pooled Fund.”

You’ll still be able to work with the wealth and investment management team as you did previously. This change does not affect the products and services they offer, nor how they manage investments.

Going forward, the new Manulife Investment Management name will be used in material like fund pages.

Should other changes be required, the affected parties will be notified.

According to the 2016 Manulife Financial Wellness Index , a surprising 40% of Canadians believe that they’re “financially unwell.” Even more surprising? Of those, only 22%¹ have a financial advisor. As a result, they’re more likely to report feeling stress associated with their money troubles, compared to those who are “financially well.”

Why should sponsors be concerned?

A whopping 93%² of professional counsellors agreed that financial stress impacts productivity and work. This can have cascading consequences for an employer, including lack of employee engagement, distraction and, ultimately, an impact to the bottom line.

What’s keeping members from reaching out for help?

It’s obvious people want to be more confident about their finances. However, when financial challenges are linked to life issues, professional counsellors feel it is difficult for people to reveal their money problems, mainly because of shame and embarrassment². These emotional barriers are blocking their path to financial fitness, so we need to make it easy and accessible for them to get the help they want.

For employees overcome their barriers, they need to feel:

• They are not alone – poor financial health is more common than people think
• It’s okay – having money issues doesn’t make someone a failure
• They can still get there – with the right support and guidance, anyone can feel comfortable managing their money

We believe financial guidance must be more accessible to help employees reduce financial stress and get on the right track. Whether through videos, webinars , or in an individual meeting , offering financial education and guidance as part of your savings program is a win-win for both employees and organizations – employees are happier, healthier and ready to bring their best to work every day.

For more information, contact your Manulife representative.

¹ Manulife Financial Wellness Index, 2016
² Emotional barriers to financial wellness - 2017 study conducted by Manulife / Homewood

Move terminating members from your RPP to The Manulife Personal Plan™

If members stay in your Registered Pension Plan (RPP) after termination, you may be able to move future terminating members out of your plan and into The Manulife Personal Plan™, wherever provincial legislation permits.

Normally, members who leave your organization stay in your RPP unless they actively decide to move their assets out of the plan. This can create administrative challenges for you when it comes to keeping their information up to date and communicating with them. It can also lead to higher administrative fees due to the additional memberships in their plan.

But Manulife offers you the option of automatically rolling members over to The Manulife Personal Plan™, designed especially for terminating and retiring members of Manulife group plans.

How it works

When a member leaves your organization, they will receive a statement outlining their options for moving their assets out of the RPP. They will have 90 days to decide on an option. If they don’t decide, their assets will automatically roll over into The Manulife Personal Plan, where they can continue to grow their savings.

Who can be moved

Future terminating members in any jurisdiction except Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Depending on provincial legislation, either members with any asset level or members with less than the commutable amount can be moved:

• Alberta and British Columbia – any asset level
• All other eligible jurisdictions – less than the commutable amount

If you do not currently have this option and would like to activate it, contact your Manulife Representative.

SUPPORTING PLAN ADMINISTRATORS – WITH THE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMISSION OF ONTARIO (FSCO)’S NEW POLICY ON MISSING BENEFICIARIES

FSCO has outlined expectations on plan administrators (plan sponsors) of Ontario registered plans for locating missing terminated members subject to Ontario pension legislation. To assist plan sponsors with their search, Group Retirement Solutions Plan Sponsor Services will offer the following services, based on a fee** for service.

Manulife will proceed with the search for those members requested by the plan sponsor. Manulife’s services include:

• Make available to the plan sponsor a list of missing/incorrect addresses in an Excel file;
• Engage a professional search company (e.g. Equifax); and
• Once the search is completed, Manulife will provide the plan sponsor with a listing of the members searched and the date of the search.

**Please refer to your Service and Fee Agreement or the quotation that is part of your contract, as applicable for details on the fees applicable to conducting searches through external services

PLAN SPONSORS PLEASE NOTE

While Manulife will assist with the location of missing members, the plan sponsor is responsible to

• follow the steps described in FSCO Policy A300-900 that is available on FSCO’s website
http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/en/pensions/policies/active/Pages/default.aspx#admin. Manulife’s assistance is limited to the services noted above.
• apply to the Superintendent for a waiver of the biennial statement requirement where applicable. Manulife will not perform this on behalf of plan sponsors; and
• keep track of members for whom a search was conducted over time. Manulife will provide the listing of the members searched and date of the search at the time the services are rendered.

Plan sponsors should contact their Manulife representative for more information.

To help you better track your members’ goal-setting activities and their progress, we offer you the Steps Retirement Program® Activity Report, which replaces the Retirement Goal Setting Report on the plan sponsor secure site as of June 10, 2018.

Like Retirement Goal Setting Report, the Steps Retirement Program Activity report gives you a breakdown of members’ progress towards their retirement goals. But it also offers other valuable insights that can help you determine what action to take:

• Data is broken down by age and sex, to help you see which segments of your members are most active in their retirement planning.
• Comparison between the activities of existing members and new members, helping you see whether your new members are setting goals and getting engaged in the plan.
• Built-in benchmarking shows you how your members’ activities compare with the average for similar Manulife plans. This can help you take steps to make sure your members are aware of the retirement savings plans available to them.

The Steps Retirement Program Activity Report is already available and you can request it through the secure plan sponsor site. The Retirement Goal Setting Report will be removed from the list of available reports as of June 10, 2018.

If you have any questions, please contact your Manulife representative.

For you, working with plan sponsor statements used to mean getting thick envelopes – or boxes – in the mail and poring over reams of paper to find and share the information you needed. And then finding a place to store all this paper.

So, when we made sponsor statements available online, it wasn’t just about “going digital”. It was about thinking of your work from your point of view and using technology to improve your experience.

You can download and share these statements in a just few clicks and then store them electronically. This makes several tasks easier, like:

• Preparing for audits
• Making annual filings
• Efficient record-keeping

If you’re expecting online sponsor statements, you’ll get an email notification when your statements are available. Depending on which secure site you use, you’ll find your statements:

• On the sponsor secure site – under Reporting, by selecting View report results and clicking on the Statements tab. The Member account summary, Membership summary, and Financial report summary are all available online.
• On the sponsor VIP Room – from the homepage, you’ll find the Client Statement in the Reporting Inbox.

If you have any questions, please contact your Manulife representative.

Great news! On October 27th, Manulife became one of the first benefits and retirement service providers to offer Fingerprint ID for Android^TM . Now, plan members using iOS and Android^TM devices can access their group benefits and retirement accounts using Manulife Mobile without having to enter their sign-in credentials. By simply using their fingerprint to identify themselves as plan members, they can start managing their accounts.

Offering Fingerprint ID for Android^TM is another big step towards our mission to offer the best plan member experience in the industry.

With our member education resource centre, we introduced a new feature to our arsenal of tools that helps address the most common challenges facing retirement plans today.

Available from the home page of your plan sponsor secure site, this resource centre offers a library of ready-to-go campaigns covering a wide variety of topics that touch on key aspects of plan members’ financial life. Each topic includes various types of tactics and visuals that resonate with the demographics of your plan (posters, emails, web banners, infographics, intranet content, videos, etc.). You can browse the materials available, download any that fit your plan’s needs and roll them out to your employees anytime you want.

Read the brochure and watch the video to learn more.

Help your members make the most of their group retirement program and improve their overall financial health so they can get the future they want. Log in to your plan sponsor secure site and select Educate your members. Make sure you visit the resource centre regularly, as new topics were added throughout 2018.

The Plan Administration Guide is an invaluable resource for the day-to-day management of your defined contribution group retirement plan. Featuring a clean look and written in plain language, the Guide covers:

• How to perform day-to-day tasks
• Available tools
• Governance information
• New services (Financial Wellness Assessment, Manulife Mobile, Legislation Corner, new plan sponsor reports)
• Key contact information

Have a look at the Plan Administration Guide here, and on the secure plan sponsor site.

There’s now more self-serve reporting at your fingertips. These reports are designed to help you manage your group savings program, and take action to help your members make the most of their plan. The three new reports introduced include: Steps Retirement Program^® (Steps) Activity Report, the Member Demographic Report – Summary and Member Detail, and the Members without Specified Investment Directions Report – Summary and Member Detail.

You can use these reports to:

• Encourage members to set a retirement income goal
• See which members are making progress towards achieving their defined retirement income goals
• Assess the need for a targeted campaign to address an engagement need
• Help identify any potential risks or opportunities to improve the success of your members’ retirement strategy
• Identify members who have not provided investment direction for their contributions

All reports feature a simple design, the flexibility to consolidate the reporting across all your plans, and are available in Excel (which will give you the added flexibility to export the data).

Click on the links below to see what these reports can do for you:

You have access to five more online self-serve reports on the secure sponsor site. These reports consist of the Financial Summary, the Contributions report, the Withdrawals report, the Member Investment Behaviour Review (MIBR) and the Fund Performance report (available as a standalone or as part of the MIBR).

These reports can help you:

• Validate your members’ contributions as early as the same day
• Determine if more education is needed for your members, or if tighter rules are needed for their plans - for example if plan members are withdrawing assets prior to termination from their plan
• See growth in your plan’s assets from year-to-year
• Assess whether your plan’s investment options are performing as expected, and if members are providing investment direction
• Simplify and ease the administration of your plans