RRSP, TFSA and other savings plans

THE IPP

A smart solution for business owners that allows for more tax-sheltered savings than an RRSP.

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What is an IPP?

An Individual Pension Plan (IPP) is a made-to-measure plan designed for company owners as well as self-employed individuals whose average annual income is generally over $100,000.

The IPP characteristics

  • Set up for one person only or for a few people and funded by the company (tax-deductible)
  • Which contains a defined benefit component that provides retirement income generally equivalent to 2% of the average of the three highest annual salaries earned for each year of service credited.
  • Which allows savings to grow tax-free
  • Which can be maximized by transferring the plan member’s RRSP

Is an IPP right for you?

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Do you own a company?

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Are you over age 40?

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Is your annual T4 salary over $100,000?

Did you answer “yes” to these questions?

An Individual Pension Plan (IPP) can help you optimize your retirement income.

See all our questions and answers
Compare different scenarios with our simulator

What are the benefits?

Beneficial for owners as well as businesses

Since for this type of pension plan, the plan member and the employer are very often the same person, an IPP offers a number of benefits from both the member’s and the employer’s perspective.

An IPP is often set up once a company has generated significant earnings and wants to avoid paying too much tax. Employers can choose to pay contributions into their IPP, which will be an expense for the company, reducing its earnings and therefore its tax burden.

Contributions made to the plan by the employer are not a taxable benefit for the plan member.

In other words, company owners can pay contributions into their own IPP to save money for their retirement and cut their company’s tax bill.

Advantages for plan members
  • Plan funded by the company
  • Allows more money to be saved for retirement than an RRSP
  • Recognizes years of past service, increasing the retirement pension
  • Customization is possible: indexation of benefits, early retirement without reduction and bridge benefit
  • Assets grow tax-free up to retirement; possibility for assets to continue tax-free growth after retirement if pension benefits are drawn directly from the IPP
  • Assets in a IPP are exempt from seizure by creditors
  • Contributions to social programs (EI, CPP) are not applicable to money invested in a IPP
Advantages for employers
  • Significant tax savings: contributions reduce company earnings
  • Assets in a IPP reduce shareholders’ equity, which can facilitate the sale of the company

Clear and simple investment solution

Investment solutions should be exactly that: solutions. For this reason, we work hard to keep ours clear and simple, yet sophisticated enough to accommodate the entire range of risk profiles and financial situations.

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À la carte solutions

For plan members who prefer to build their own retirement portfolio, we offer asset allocation funds and individual funds.

Our funds are selected based on an in-depth analysis of multiple quantitative and qualitative criteria, and are subsequently the object of strict and continual monitoring.

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Guaranteed investments

Offered for terms varying from 1 to 10 years, iA Financial Group’s guaranteed investments represent a sound component of any portfolio and are used by many investors.

Some of their key features include:

  • The possibility of surrendering at market value at any time
  • No minimum deposit – competitive interest rates
  • Up to $100,000 coverage from Assuris
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Dynamic asset allocation

Our 65 ATTITUDE portfolios offer members dynamic asset allocation over time: as the member approaches retirement, his or her investments are more cautiously invested.

Once you have chosen the ATTITUDE portfolio that best suits you, its composition will be adjusted automatically every three months to become more cautious without any action required on your part. The further way from retirement you are, the greater the proportion of your savings invested in equities. Inversely, as you approach retirement, the greater the proportion of your savings invested in bonds in order to reduce the effects of market fluctuations and to protect the savings you have accumulated over time.

ATTITUDE Portfolios

The ATTITUDE portfolios are an excellent way to grow your investments without having to analyze and monitor market fluctuations. They are a wise option that will help you to stay the course to your retirement with peace of mind!

They are based on two determining factors:

  • The member's tolerance to risk (investor profile)
  • The member’s investment horizon (anticipated retirement date)
See the composition of their assets

Useful documents

IPP Brochure

Find Individual Pension Plan (IPP) information in this easy to share brochure.

Download the brochure

Your plan set up schedule

This document explains the process of setting up the IPP in four steps.

Download the schedule

FAQ

Implementation

The current service contributions can be remitted as soon as the registration documents have been submitted to CRA. You may refer to the Implementation Calendar for more information. Current service contributions will then be required to be remitted monthly to the IPP.

You should cease contributing to your RRSP until you receive a new Notice of Assessment after the set up of your IPP. The new Notice of Assessment will provide you with the RRSP room remaining after having set up the IPP. In the years following the setup of the IPP, you will receive additional RRSP room of $600 per year, after reflecting the benefits recognized within the IPP.

No, the IPP is effective from January 1st of the year it is implemented. It may only have an impact on the year the deductions are actually taken. Employer contributions made to the IPP during a fiscal year, or within 120 days of the fiscal year-end, will be tax-deductible for that fiscal year if they relate to service prior to the fiscal year-end.

The company’s IPP contributions are deductible. The company must include any pension plan deficit in its financial statements. Our team can help you calculate the amounts to be disclosed in financial statements.

Fees

Fees can be paid by the employer or be deducted from the assets of the IPP.

All fees charged for the IPP are entirely tax-deductible. These fees cover the following services:

  • Implementation of the plan and monitoring of your case file by a qualified advisor
  • Preparation and drafting of the plan text
  • Registration of the plan with the Canada Revenue Agency and relevant provincial authorities, where applicable
  • Any requisite changes to the plan in the event of changes in legislation
  • Initial actuarial valuation for the plan and subsequent actuarial valuations (generally every three years) to determine the amount of contributions and ensure the plan is adequately funded
  • Any requisite valuation in the event of a past service buyback
  • Annual information returns
  • All required annual regulatory filings
  • Plan member’s annual statement
  • Valuation of termination of employment, death and pension benefits
  • Data retention for plan administration
  • Annual pension adjustment (PA) calculation
  • Daily report on your investment fund returns
  • Transmission of our various publications: Monthly Update, Quarterly Update and annual report on investment funds

Funding

It depends on the number of years you have been working for the company, your earnings history, your unused RRSP deduction limit for the previous year, and the size of your current RRSP assets. You can ask our team to prepare a detailed illustration that would show your exact amount of RRSP transfer.

If the IPP is subject to a provincial legislation or to the PBSA, the employer must contribute the current service amount indicated in the actuarial valuation report. The employer is also required to contribute the special payments recommended within the report for the amortization of the deficits.

You will have access to the secure website ia.ca/myaccount where you will be able to see your investments, make changes to your fund selection, and update your account. You can also submit your changes by mail.

At the time of retirement or termination of the plan, there may be a deficit in the plan. The employer is required to fund the deficit before the member can transfer his rights out of the plan, unless the legislation allows for a benefit reduction. This deficit will potentially be greater than the maximum funding deficit indicated in the actuarial valuations.

The company must be an operating company and be able to show that it has an employee/employer relationship with the member, in which case it can contribute according to the salary paid to that member.

Yes, the surplus RRSP assets transferred will be attributed to the defined contribution account and calculated separately from the assets for the defined benefit portion of the IPP.

Termination

Yes.

In most situations, the IPP will be terminated. Two options are available: transfer to LIRA (or RRSP if the IPP is not subject to the provincial legislation nor the PBSA) or purchase an insured annuity. The transfer option will be subject to CRA’s maximum transfer rules. We recommend that you contact us before selling the company to look at your options and customize the best option for you.

At retirement or termination, it is possible to improve the benefits paid from the plan. The employer can take additional deductions to increase the benefits paid to the member. The improvements can be an additional pension, a bridge, a higher indexation, or any combination of those three.

Management

You will have access to the secure website ia.ca/myaccount where you will be able to see your investments, make changes to your fund selection, and update your account.

No, only employment income with the participating employer is considered (T4 - Box 14).

For a designated pension plan, CRA limits the deductions that a company can take by requiring a maximum funding valuation based on prescribed assumptions. A designated pension plan is a plan for which more than 50% of the total pension credits for plan members are for connected members or members whose income exceeds 2.5 times the Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings of the Quebec (or Canada) Pension Plan.

It depends on which provincial jurisdiction your IPP is subject to. If additional voluntary contributions are made to your IPP, they will not be locked in.