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Pension Buy-Back Update

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The following message is sent on behalf of SFU, SFUFA, and the Trustees of the Academic Pension Plan

The process of transition to the BC College Pension Plan (BCCPP) continues, as faculty members wait for individualized calculations regarding the cost of purchasing previous years of service in the new plan. The purchase of past service is entirely voluntary – the following message applies only to those who have applied for a Statement of Cost to purchase past service.

There are three major points that faculty members should be aware of:

  1. The BCCPP has indicated that it will send out costs of previous service TODAY, June 13;
  2. There is a limited window of time in which decisions can be made and processes completed to purchase years of service;
  3. Faculty members are encouraged to seek independent financial advice before making any decisions; SFU, SFUFA and Academic Pension Plan trustees cannot offer advice or recommended financial advisors.

 Next steps

BC CPP has informed us that the Purchase Statement of Cost will be in the mail by today, June 13, 2022. This was sent to your mailing address on record with the BC Pension Corporation. If you are not sure what address that might be, you can check on myaccount through the  BC Pension Corporation website. If you do not receive your statement of cost by June 27, 2022, please contact the BC Pension Corporation right away at 1-888-440-0111.

The package will include all required forms, instructions on how to complete those forms, and details on where to submit them and deadlines for submission. If you have questions about the materials you receive, please contact BCCPP at 1-888-440-0111.

Faculty members are responsible for completion of all forms to transfer funds to the BCCPP, and must meet all deadlines. The window is only 120 calendar days, and the deadline for all processes to be complete is October 13, 2022.

Sun Life has indicated that it could take as many as 8 weeks to process transfer forms so members will need to move quickly to initiate the process. Delays at SunLife will not be cause to extend the BCCCP deadline.

Faculty members are encouraged to seek independent financial advice as soon as possible; while precise statements of cost are not yet available, the better prepared you can be the quicker and smoother will be the process.

For any questions related to the purchase of past service and/ or the transfer of Sun Life funds, please reach out to the organizations directly.  

                For BCCPP: Visit https://college.pensionsbc.ca/college-pension-plan

                                        Telephone: 1-888-440-0111

                For Sun Life: Visit https://www.sunlife.ca/en/

                                        Telephone: 1-866-733-8612

 Neither SFU nor SFUFA is in a position to provide final authoritative information which comes solely from the pension organizations, we are sending this reminder email as a courtesy only.

 Yours truly,

Catherine Dauvergne, Vice-President Academic

Kumari Beck, SFUFA President