General Information

General Information

Claims:

Health and Dental Claims are to be sent to:

Great West Life Health and Dental Payment Office
255 Dufferin Ave
London, ON
N6A 4K1

Inquires and Forms for the Health and Dental Plan should be directed to the Great West Life Customer Care Centre at 1-800-957-9777 or their website www.greatwestlife.com [4] and click on GroupNet for Plan Members.

Enrollment:

*New Member Enrollment Forms [5]

*Great West Life Application Form [6]

*ADD Enrollment Beneficiary Designation [7]

*The above forms need to be filled out for the enrollment process*

Pension Waiver Form [8]

Send to:
Pension and Insurance Board
1655 Manawagonish Road
Saint John, NB E2M 3Y2

If you have any questions, please contact Karen Gunn [9], Benefits Coordinator, at the Pension & Insurance office at 506-635-1922 ext 108.

Information:

The Canadian Baptist Pension Plan is invested and managed with the Great-West Life Assurance Company. The National Pension and Insurance Committee, which has representation from all of the Conventions across our Country, meets on a regular basis to review Plan performance. The record keeper of the Plan is Sun Life Financial.

Pension

Pension Information

Eligibility:

Any person is eligible to enrol in the Canadian Baptist Pension Plan, provided he/she has not attained the age of 65 years at the time of making application, is not enrolled in any other Group Pension Plan and is serving as either:

• a full-time leadership person, ordained or otherwise (such as Minister, Assistant Minister, Minister of Visitation, Minister of Christian Education or Minister of Music) who employed by a church of the Convention; or
• a permanent full-time or part-time employee of a church of the Convention who works a minimum of thirteen (13) hours per week in either the province of Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island. The minimum requirement for the provinces of New Brunswick and Newfoundland is that employees earn a minimum of 35% of the Yearly Maximum Pensionable Earnings which would be $16,520 for 2010.

According to Pension Legislation, in all four Atlantic provinces, employers may wait up to one year after the date of hire before they are required to offer Plan participation. Churches have the option to waive the one year waiting period and offer enrollment earlier. It is recommended by Convention to offer immediate enrollment for full-time leadership personnel.

Individual Account:

An individual account will be established for each member and credited with contributions by the member and the employer on his/her behalf. These contributions will be credited with interest from the date the contributions are received by Sun Life Financial.

Basic Contributions:

The pension premium is 12% of the total salaryincluding the value of housing provided, whether it be the fair rental value of the parsonage plus utilities or the amount of the housing allowance. Each member will contribute by payroll deduction, 6% of earnings and the employer will contribute an equal amount on his/her behalf.

Pension payroll deductions and matched contributions must be forwarded on a monthly basis as soon after the end of each month as possible, in order to reach offices of Sun Life Financial on or before the 10th day of the following month. Employers may set up pre-authorized debits on their bank accounts to ensure timely remittance of contributions.

Investment Fund Options:

The Canadian Baptist Pension Plan has four pension fund investment options for members, the Conservative Fund, Moderate Fund, Balanced Fund and Aggressive Fund. As the names would imply, the investment risk associated with them is different with each Fund. Members are asked to choose the Fund they are most comfortable with, based upon the level of risk they are willing to accept. For more details, please contact Sun Life Financial.

Additional Contributions:

It is also possible for the member to pay Additional Voluntary premiums up to the yearly maximum as permitted under the provisions of the Income Tax Act for contributions to a Registered Retirement Plan. This must be done through the members payroll.

Insurance & Benefits

Insurance & Benefits Information

Insurances and Medical/Dental Coverage:

The pension plan and the various insurance plans are a PACKAGE DEAL. If someone meets the eligibility requirements to enroll in the Pension Plan and works a minimum of 20 hours per week, then he/she must also be enrolled in the insurances and medical plan, unless he/she is already enrolled in another group plan. The premiums for the insurance benefits are billed to the church on a monthly basis.

Premiums for all benefits will be billed to your Church on a Monthly basis. Your Church must pay your Long-Term Disability and EAP premiums, but all other premiums may be cost shared.

Basic Life Insurance (Great West Life):

This coverage is a term insurance for the employed member in the amount of $40,000 until the earlier of retirement or age 65; 5,000 until age 70; and $2,500 for age 70 and over. If this $10.04 monthly premium is paid by the church, it represents a taxable benefit to the member and must be reported on the members T4 slip.

Dependent Life Insurance (Great West Life):

There is also dependent coverage in the amount of $10,000 for the spouse; and $4,000 for each dependent child. Upon the earlier of retirement or attainment of age 65 for the member, the dependent benefit will reduce to $5,000 on the spouse and $2,000 on any dependent children. Dependent Life Insurance terminates when the member attains age 70. If this $2.22 monthly premium is paid by the church, it represents a taxable benefit to the member and must be reported on the members T4 slip.

Short Term Disability:

Should a member become disabled while employed, such that he/she is unable to perform his/her duties for an extended period of time, it is recommended that the church establish a Supplemental Unemployment Benefits (SUB) Plan, which is set up with the Human Resources Department of the Federal Government (800-561-7923). This plan will allow the church to pay the member up to 40% of his/her pre-disability earnings for up to four months, while he/she receives Employment Income Benefits of 55%. If the disability is severe and prolonged, the member needs to apply for Long Term Disability and for the Canada Pension Plan disability pension. This pension is deemed payable from the fourth month after the member is deemed to become disabled.

Long Term Disability (Great West Life):

This coverage provides a continuing income for each member, effective after 120 days of total disability, and continues until the earliest of age 65 years, recovery, or death, whichever comes first. To qualify for benefits, you must be unable to perform the duties of your own occupation for the first two years of the disability payments, and thereafter be unable to perform any occupation for which you are reasonably qualified by your education, training or experience. This insurance provides a monthly benefit equal to 67% of the members pre-disability income. The Long Term Disability insurance is contracted nationally with Great West Life as an employer provided benefit. As such, the employer is required to pay the full premium.

It is extremely important to notify the Pension & Insurance office if there is any change in the members salary throughout the year by completing a Confidential Information Sheet. Great West Life will only use the last salary on file in the case of a disability claim.

Medical/Dental Care (Great West Life)

Premiums collected are placed in a resource pool from which claims plus the administration costs are collected. Future premiums are based upon claims experience. Each member is asked to use the plan wisely in order to keep costs down.

If the member is currently covered by another group insurance policy, this premium may be waived upon proof of insurance.

More information can be found in their Information Booklet [10].

Premiums

The monthly premiums for 2010 are as follows: