1. Do our employees understand their Group Retirement Savings Plan?

Providing a Group RRSP, DPSP or other workplace savings programs is an important step, but employees still need to understand what they have and how to use it. If they do not understand the plan, they are less likely to join, leaving ‘free money’ and the opportunity to save on the table.

What employees are asking

Retirement plans can come with unfamiliar terminology, investment choices and decisions. Employees may ask:

• How much should I contribute?
• How does my employer's contribution or matching work?
• What are my investment options?
• What do the different fund choices mean?
• How risky is it for me to invest in these funds?
• Where can I see how my investments are performing?
• Who can I talk to if I have questions?

These are valid questions, and they are why education is an important part of a successful group retirement program.

How Immix Group supports employees

At Immix Group, we see education as ongoing plan support, not simply something that happens at launch. Our advisors can help employees understand how their workplace savings program works, the options available and where to find the information they need to make informed decisions. Written materials and periodic webinars are useful, but they may not be enough on their own. Employees also need to know who they can turn to with questions about their plan.

Tailor the message. Education works best when it is tailored to different work segments, such as office-based staff, shift workers and field workers, so each group gets information in a way that fits how they work.

The employer question. Are we merely offering a retirement plan, or are we helping employees understand and make the most of it? Making education and advisor support accessible gives employees somewhere to take their questions, while helping HR avoid becoming the default source of personal financial advice.

Don’t have an employer sponsored group savings program yet? Ask us how to get started!

2. What are we paying in fees for our Group Retirement Savings Plan?

This is one of the questions we hear most often from employers, and it gets plenty of media attention. Even a small difference in fees can add up over decades, but the answer is not always as straightforward as it sounds.

With a Group RRSP or DPSP, you may encounter terms including:

• Investment Management Fees (IMFs)
• Operating Expenses (OEs)
• Administration fees for certain transactions
• Advisor compensation fees

• Recordkeeping and day-to-day administration
• Online tools for payroll remittance and enrolment
• Sponsor reporting and an annual plan review
• Customer service support
• A monitored investment lineup
• Member websites, apps and planning tools
• Enrolment and education sessions
• Support with governance and CAP Guideline responsibilities

How fees are applied. Fees charged to a member’s account reduce their investment return. For example, if a fund earns a 10% return before fees and investment-related fees are 1%, those fees reduce the return ultimately received by the member.

That attention on fees has also opened the door to new players. Low-cost online platforms are moving into the group retirement space, including Wealthsimple, a name many Canadians associate with digital investing. Their main selling point is lower fees, built around low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a user-friendly platform, and understandable communications.

What to ask. More choice is good for employers, but it makes it even more important to understand what is being compared, and what makes sense for a particular workforce. You do not need to become an investment fee expert, but you should feel comfortable asking your advisor or provider: What are we paying, how are those costs calculated and what are we receiving in return? What are you, as the advisor, receiving in compensation? Most importantly, the answers should make sense to you.

3. Are employees making the most of our contributions?

Employer contributions are often the most valuable part of a group savings program, but only if employees take full advantage of them. Employers and advisors alike are often surprised when enrolment in a voluntary plan with an employer contribution is anything less than 100%.

Questions to ask about participation

Where a plan includes matching, employees who do not enrol, or who do not contribute enough to receive the full match, may be leaving available employer contributions on the table. Ask:

• Are all eligible employees enrolled?
• Are employees contributing enough to receive the full employer match?
• Do new hires know when they become eligible and how to enroll?
• Do employees know how much the company contributes on their behalf?
• Do employees revisit their contribution level as their income changes?

Why proactive follow-up matters

Sending out an enrolment link and hoping employees follow through is not the best way to optimize plan participation. Employers who get the most from their contributions are proactive. They review enrolment and contribution levels every year, work with their advisor to identify who has not joined or is not capturing the full match, and follow up until employees understand the plan and are using it to its full value. That often means new hires, younger employees who feel retirement is a long way off, or shift and field workers who missed the original enrolment session. A short, personal conversation is often what turns “I’ll get to it later” into “Sign me up.”

Know your numbers. Participation is one of the clearest signs of whether a plan is working, so ask your advisor for the numbers: how many employees are enrolled, how many are receiving the full match and where the gaps are. Then act on them. Your contribution only delivers its value once employees have claimed it.

4. Are employees actually planning for retirement, or just saving?

Contributing every pay period is an important habit but saving and planning are not the same thing. A group retirement savings plan is only one piece of the picture. Planning means understanding how those savings fit within a broader financial plan, including other sources of retirement income such as CPP and OAS, and personal savings such as a TFSA.

Planning help available to employees

Employees also need to know what planning help is available and use it. Most provider platforms include online tools and calculators that can help employees estimate what they may need and whether they are on track. Those tools are a good start, but a conversation with an advisor can help employees understand what those numbers mean for their own situation.

Access to experienced advisors. At Immix Group, plan members have the opportunity to work with the advisors at Ciccone McKay Financial Group, our sister company. Those advisors can look at the workplace plan alongside everything else an employee has and help build a plan around their own goals. It is a real value add to the program, and one employers should make sure their people know about.

Questions to ask about planning

Many employees contribute faithfully without a clear picture of where those savings are taking them. Ask:

• Do employees have a sense of how much they may need in retirement?
• Do they understand how their workplace savings fit with CPP, OAS and any personal savings?
• Have they named or updated their beneficiaries?
• Do they know their options if they leave the company or retire?

Why it matters. Helping employees connect their workplace savings to a longer-term plan builds financial literacy, while making the employer's investment more visible and more valued.

5. Is our Group Retirement Savings Plan designed the way we would design it today?

Set once, then left alone. Many Group Retirement Savings Plans are set up once and then left largely unchanged. The company grows, the workforce changes, employee expectations shift, and the plan stays the same. In our experience, GRS plans tend to receive less attention than group benefits programs. Employers may review their benefits every year without asking whether their retirement plan’s matching formula, eligibility rules or overall design still fit.

How plan design drives participation

Because joining the plan is often voluntary, plan design is one of the most important levers an employer has to encourage participation. The matching formula, the waiting period and who is eligible all shape whether employees join, how much they contribute and how much value they see in the plan. These are decisions you make on behalf of your employees, which makes them a money conversation worth having out loud. Ask:

• When did we last review our plan design, and what has changed in our business since?
• Is our employer matching formula still the right one for our goals and our budget?
• Does our match encourage employees to save more, or only enough to get the match?
• Does our waiting period keep new employees from starting to save?
• Are all the employees we want in the plan eligible, including part-time and contract staff?
• Does our investment lineup, including the default option, suit our workforce?
• Is the plan still helping us attract and keep good people?
• Are we competitive with similar employers?

How Immix Group helps. At Immix, plan design is not a one-time setup. We work with employers to review their program regularly, explain the options in plain language, and help get employees engaged so the plan delivers the value you intended.