New Employer - Simplified Pension Plan choices

[renea]

Hey everyone,



I just started a new job (Quebec) and currently going through the selections for my benefits. For the plan, the company has a pretty generous offer. Without going into details, with everything they give and match on top of what I put in, if I put in 9% of my money, I pretty much hit the 18% of salary allowable RRSP max. There is also a possibility of an extra match depending on company performance, and if it goes over 18%, the extra spills over into a non-registered account.



Now my question revolves around choosing the right funds for the registered plans. Everything is through Sunlife, I have no control over that, and we have a set number of funds we can chose from. Luckily, they have low-fee Index funds to chose from, just not the usual Vanguards everyone recommends in this sub. Also, my theoretical retirement year would be 2048.

Here is the list:

• BLK LP Index Retirement (QNB)
  
• BLK LP Index 2025 Fund (QNS)
  
• BLK LP Index 2030 Fund (QNE)
  
• BLK LP Index 2035 Fund (QNT)
  
• BLK LP Index 2040 Fund (QNF)
  
• BLK LP Index 2045 Fund (QOP)
  
• BLK LP Index 2050 Fund (QSZ)
  
• BLK LP Index 2055 Fund (QYP)
  
• BLK LP Index 2060 Fund (QJO)
  

• SLA 1Yr Guaranteed Fund (012)
  
• SLF Money Market (X21)
  
• PH&N Bond Fund (U44)
  
• TDAM Cdn Bond Index Fund (X37)
  
• CI Port Series Balanced (U73)
  
• B.G. Canadian Equity (U05)
  
• BLK Active Canadian Eq (W75)
  
• CC&L Group Cdn Q Growth (QMW)
  
• BLK EAFE Equity Index (W45)
  
• BLK US Equity Index (W44)
  
• BLK US Equity Index Reg (X90)
  
• Fiera Global Equity (QWP)
  
• MFS Intl Equity Fund B (X68)
  
• TDAM Global Equity Index (W57)
  

Any thoughts? Should I just go simple and go for the low fee Blackrock 2045 index fund?



Thanks!

 

[xser88]

@renea I have most of my money in the BlackRock 2050 and it has historically been awesome. The last year has not been great, but I am happily contributing more.

 

[testallthings]

@xser88 sorry, i'm new to this and would like to know how does this compare to XEQT or VGRO?

Recently left my job, and I have to decide whether to stay in Canada Life with the BlackRock LifePath 2055 or transfer to my Questrade.

 

[xser88]

@testallthings I'm not an expert, but fundamentally this far out. They're pretty similar to those funds. The nice thing is that it's time goes on. It will rebalance to reduce risk. You don't need to buy and sell stocks as you become more conservative closer to retirement age.

 

[testallthings]

@xser88 Thank you

 

[russel]

@renea The asset mix depends on your risk tolerance. I have Sunlife too, and I chose Black US Equity Index, Reg/CC&L Group Cdn Q Growth and BLK EAFE Equity with an asset mix of 40/40/20. I wanted to diversify with US/Canadian and Developed Market.

 

[m5comp]

@renea I would go with 2050, or 2045 if your a tad more conservative

 

[cristal19]

@renea Your employer must have sun life, I have all the same and have been there 16 years.

I go X90 and QWP but that it me. High risk investor here.

 

[emilswift]

@renea What are the fees on those BLK LP Index funds?

 

[renea]

@emilswift BLK LP fund FMF fees seem to range between 0.54% to 0.62%. The 2045 fund is 0.57%.

As for all the other options, they are all under .75% as well, except Fiera Global Equity Fund, which is at 1.15%.