Standard Life gets VRSP licence

Standard Life has been issued a licence by the Autorité des marches financiers (AMF) to administer a voluntary retirement savings plan (VRSP) in Quebec starting next month.

“The AMF’s licence is an important step in the setup of our VRSP offering,” says Philippe Toupin, the company’s vice-president, group solutions. “There are still important steps to go through, such as filing our registration document today with the Régie des rentes du Québec and the Canada Revenue Agency, but we are confident that we will receive all our approbations to launch our VRSP on July 1.”

Organizations with five or more employees and without a workplace savings plan will have to offer such a plan to workers with one year of continuous service.

The deadline for introducing the VRSP depends on the size of the company.

Employers with 20 or more employees will have to offer a VRSP by Dec. 31, 2016. Firms with 10 to 19 employees have until Dec. 31, 2017, and the deadline for those with five to nine employees cannot be earlier than Jan. 1, 2018.

Related articles: