Welcome to savewithSPP.com

December 1, 2011

Welcome to the Saskatchewan Pension Plan’s (SPP) blog – a new way for us to keep current members informed and reach out to prospective new members. Beginning December 1, we are going to be blogging regularly and you can also follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

We will be posting podcasts with interviews of people behind the SPP, frequently asked questions, financial tips and links to personal finance articles written by top authorities across the country.

In a Toronto Star article late last year, the SPP was described as “Canada’s best kept secret.” Our new social media initiative is designed to make sure that secret is a thing of the past.

The fact is, SPP is a program developed ahead of its time. This plan, started 25 years ago is what many jurisdictions now desire. Anyone between age 18 and 71 is eligible to join, regardless of where they live and whether they are members in other plans, as long as they have unused RRSP contribution room.

It is a fully-funded capital accumulation plan created by the Saskatchewan government to provide supplementary retirement income to individuals with little or no access to employer-sponsored pensions.

Last December the federal and provincial governments announced that the maximum contributions would increase to $2,500 and that contributions would be subject the RRSP contribution rules. Members may now also transfer up to $10,000 a year from RRSPs, RRIFs and unlocked RPPs.

As of December 31, 2010, the SPP had close to 32,000 members and over 11,000 members received a pension from the Plan.  The market value of the fund was $192.5 million.

 So far in 2011, 931 new people have joined the plan. Our goal is to register over 1,000 new members before the end of the year.

In a recent article in the August/September 2011 issue of the CGA Ontario magazine Statements, author Flavian Pinto called the SPP “another option in retirement planning and a possible model for a better future than we have now – a glimpse into the future of pension plans.”

You and your friends can be part of this future.

Help us to spread the word. RSS savewithSPP.com, “like” us on Facebook or connect with us on Linked in. Make sure your friends are “in on the secret” so they too can make the SPP part of their retirement savings strategy.

Katherine Strutt

General manager

Saskatchewan Pension Plan

Also read: 

Is this small pension plan Canada’s best kept secret?
Saskatchewan’s new pension plan – Canada’s first PRPP?
Pooled Pension Plans
Saskatchewan Pension Plan and Changes to the Income Tax Act