Dans son récent budget, le gouvernement du Québec a présenté un cadre de réglementation détaillé pour son nouveau régime volontaire d’épargne retraite (RVER).  Grâce à ce cadre, le Québec devient la première province du pays à couler les fondations pour un régime de pension agréé collectif (RPAC).  Le programme de RVER vise particulièrement les deux millions de travailleurs québecois qui sont propriétaires de petites et moyennes entreprises et qui n’ont pas accès à un régime de retraite d’entreprise.

Aperçu du programme  Read More

An Administrative Billing Audit consists of comparing your current insurance billing to the current staff covered on your payroll.  Why should you audit your bill?  To ensure the Insurer has completed your requests accurately and on time. These errors can create frustration with claims for your employees, creating more headaches for you.

Completing a comprehensive audit of your group insurance bill can be tedious the first time, but the cost savings to your company can far outweigh this initial time investment. Timely changes and adjustments within your group contract may help avoid extra claims added to your plan’s experience, and reduce the risk of resulting excessive premium increases to other employees.  Read More

Budget Bulletin 2012

What you need to know…

Finance Minister James Flaherty tabled the 2012 federal budget on March 29, 2012. This is the first budget presented in the House of Commons since the Conservative party won a majority of the seats in Parliament in the last election. The following is a summary of the changes announced in the budget. Please note that these changes are still proposals until passed into law by the Federal Government.

Personal Tax Matters

Personal income tax rates
No changes announced, although tax brackets have been indexed by 2.8% to reflect inflation.  Read More

“Reasonable and Customary” charges in a benefits plan refer to limits put on a medical or dental treatment, supply or service, by a health insurance provider.  These limits reflect differences in the cost of health and dental treatment, service and supplies in different regions across Canada and are applied according to where the service or supply was received.  Read More

Over the past few months I have attended various presentations concerning the changes being made to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

These changes have primarily come about to accommodate the changes in our country’s demographic makeup. People are living and working longer and as a result, exploring the potential of needing to save more money for life after work. As a result, the Canadian Pension Plan is changing.

The following is a brief outline of the 4 amendments being gradually implemented from 2011 to 2016:  Read More

• Restore the adjustment factors to their actuarially fair levels for retirement pensions taken before and after age 65.

We never expect that our relaxing vacation will include a trip to the waiting room of a hospital or medical clinic but accidents and medical emergencies do happen while travelling.  As Canadians, we are accustomed to providing our Provincial Health number at the hospital and being treated without having to pay for services.  Follow up tests and having a prescription cannot only be an inconvenience, but an unexpected expense.  Unfortunately when medical interventions are required while travelling outside of Canada, the process of paying for treatment and submitting a claim back home is more involved.  Read More

Navigating the terms associated with pharmacies, prescriptions and drug plans can sometimes sound like a foreign language.  Here’s a glossary of what some of those terms mean:

Dispensing fee

When you pay for a prescription at a pharmacy, you are paying for two components:  the ingredient cost, or the cost of the actual drug being dispensed, and the dispensing fee, the professional fee your pharmacist charges for dispensing the drug and giving you advice.  Some benefits plans have dispensing fee caps or maximums, or deductibles based around the dispensing fee.  You can ask your pharmacist what dispensing fee they would charge before getting your prescription filled.  Read More

One of the most important ideas in investing is the diversification of asset classes. In 1982, Harry Markowitz developed the idea of an “efficient frontier”. In 1990, two other gentlemen (Miller & Sharpe) developed the idea of the Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), and garnered recognition when they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Since these two developments, discussions about investing and diversification are usually done in context of Modern Portfolio Theory. Most agree that the primary asset classes in diversification are:  Read More

• Fixed Income (bonds & mortgages)

• Equities (common stocks)

• Cash

• Real Estate