Retirement Committee

The Desjardins Group Retirement Committee (DGRC) is the Plan administrator and trustee of the pension fund. Its role is to ensure the financial management and the day-to-day administration of the pension plan. To do so, the DGRC takes the necessary steps to protect the benefits of Plan members or beneficiaries, and enhance pension fund assets.

DGRC's address
995, boulevard Alphonse-Desjardins,
bureau 201
Lévis (Québec) G6V 0M5

Responsibilities

By virtue of the powers vested in it by the Supplemental Pension Plans Act and the Plan Regulation, the Retirement Committee is responsible for soundly administering the pension plan and paying promised benefits to participants and their heirs. It applies the rules provided under the Plan Regulation and ensures that the legal requirements are met.

Main duties

The Retirement Committee meets approximately five times a year. It performs the following duties and exercises the following powers:

It administers, implements and interprets the Plan's Regulation and rules on any relevant issue or incident;
It prepares administrative rules specifying how various sections of the Plan's Regulation are to be implemented;
It submits recommendations for any amendments to the Regulation that it considers necessary to the Federation Board of Directors;
It informs members and retirees of their rights, privileges and obligations under the Plan's Regulation and the Act;
It calls and holds an annual meeting at which it gives an account of its administration to members and representatives of employers. It may decide to hold regional meetings if need be;
It chooses the Plan actuary and has this person conduct actuarial valuations in keeping with the statutes and regulations in force;
It accepts the actuary's recommendations regarding the method for determining how to apply the interest rate to be credited for member contributions and recommends the contribution rate required to meet Plan requirements to the Federation Board of Directors;
It makes proposals to the Federation Board of Directors regarding the use of any actuarial surplus and ensures that deficits are amortized in compliance with the law;
It appoints an external auditor for the Plan, agrees on an annual auditing program and follows up on any recommendations made by the auditor;
It ensures that contributions are collected properly and authorizes the payment of all benefits and refunds;
It concludes with the approval of the Federation Board of Directors any transfer agreements that may prove favourable to Desjardins Group employers;
It determines the usual conditions that should apply to the redemption of past or current service by members or employers and ratifies all service redemption agreements;
It determines the procedure for crediting entitlements resulting from transfers other than those via master agreements;
It sets the conditions for determining and implementing the interest rate to be credited for contributions paid by members;
It defines the Plan's fund investment policy; it distributes retirement funds to one or more managers and, if applicable, it manages any portion of the retirement funds it deems appropriate;
It represents the Plan before government agencies and sends the agencies all reports requested by them;
It delegates all or part of its powers, and it retains the services of anyone involved in the administration of the Plan and the management of the retirement fund.

Collective profile for members of the Retirement Committee

To support sound governance, the Desjardins Group Retirement Committee (DGRC) encourages its members to expand their knowledge so that they can better understand the information provided to them, identify issues, make informed decisions and effectively monitor the administration of the pension plan. New members are provided with broad training to prepare them to fulfil their duties. In addition, all members have access to a professional development program that covers group and individual savings.

The DGRC has established an enhanced group profile that identifies various skills and abilities that its members should have collectively. This will ensure that the group as a whole is equipped to fulfil its role and properly execute its duties. The profile describes the skills that the DGRC members should possess collectively. A member is not expected to possess all of these skills, but rather that the skills they hold can contribute to achieving the collective profile of the DGRC.

The collective profile is also intended to be a tool for the various groups called upon to designate members of the DGRC. Indeed, although they have all the latitude to appoint the people of their choice, the skills profile, from which they can draw inspiration in order to promote the establishment of an effective pension committee, is submitted to them. The profile is also designed to inform prospective DGRC members of what type of contribution is expected.

The knowledge relevant to the administration of the Plan relates in particular to the following fields:

Liability management and actuarial science
Asset management
Finance and accounting
Legal and regulatory compliance
Risk management
Governance
HR and communications
Responsible investment

Individual qualities and skills:

Values and professional conduct
Availability
Cooperative spirit
Good judgment
Able to see the big picture
Strategic skills and political savvy
Active contribution during committee meetings

In addition to setting out the diverse skills needed within the DGRC, the enhanced group profile calls for membership diversity in terms of gender, age, cultural background and seniority within the DGRC. Having a diverse group of members makes it more effective and innovative.

Every year, DGRC member skills are assessed to establish the group's collective abilities and areas of expertise, identify areas that require strengthening, and inform decisions on training and professional development activities.

Ethics and professional conduct

The Desjardins Group Retirement Committee (DGRC) has a code of conduct applicable to its members as well as to the members of its management committees. The code deals with the rules of ethic to respect and the principles of ethic used to guide members in their decisions and on the conduct to adopt. Members undertake to respect the retirement committee's code of conduct each year.

The DGRC ensures the filing of the members' annual declarations of interests and their consignment in the register.

In addition, each member of the Retirement Committee and its management committees must undergo a security and credit investigation which is renewed every three years.

Composition

The Desjardins Group Retirement Committee is made up of 9 voting members. According to the Supplemental Pension Plans Act, two non-voting members, elected at the annual meeting, may be added to the Committee.

Voting members are divided up as follows:

• The president designated by the Fédération's Board of Directors

• Five members designated by the employers and appointed by the Fédération's Board of Directors

• Two members designated by members and elected in accordance with the electoral procedures determined by the Retirement Committee, namely:

One member designated by active members

One member designated by non-active members and beneficiaries

• An external member appointed by the Fédération's Board of Directors

The active members as a group and the non-active members and beneficiaries as a group may each exercise their right to designate a non-voting member on the Retirement Committee. The electoral procedures are established by the Retirement Committee.

The mandates of the members designated by active members, non-active members and beneficiaries do not all end in the same year, in order to ensure continuity within the Retirement Committee.

Note that the members of the Retirement Committee do not represent the people who designated them. Each member of the committee must act in the interest of all the members and beneficiaries of the Plan.

Members of the Desjardins Group Retirement Committee

Members designated by the employers

	Denis Latulippe, Actuary, FCIA, MBA, MSc, ASC Committee Chair Professor, Université Laval's School of Actuarial Science		Jean-François Laporte, Corporate Director, MBA, ASC-C.Dir Committee Vice-Chair Board member, Caisse Desjardins de la Pommeraie
	Francine Côté, Corporate Director, CPA, CISA, ASC-C.Dir. Committee Secretary Board member, Caisse Desjardins Ontario		Luc Bachand, Corporate Director, MBA, ICD.D, FICB
	Claudia Champagne, Professor, PhD, MSc, BAA Board member, Caisse Desjardins des Deux-Rivières de Sherbrooke		Bernard Morency, Actuary, FCIA, ICD.D Adjunct Professor, HEC Montréal, Retirement and Savings Institute