Canadian Life and Health Insurance Industry Welcomes PRPP Licensing

TORONTO, Oct. 7, 2014 /CNW/ - The Canadian life and health insurance industry welcomes today's announcement by  Minister of State (Finance) Kevin Sorenson that the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the Canada Revenue Agency have completed the PRPP licensing process for the first five PRPP providers. "We welcome today's announcement that five insurance companies have been licensed to provide PRPPs and believe it demonstrates the willingness of our industry to provide Canadians with an excellent vehicle to save for retirement" says Frank Swedlove, President of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA).

PRPPs will increase Canadians' access to workplace retirement plans and improve their retirement income outlook. In addition, PRPPs are low-cost, efficient solutions that draw on existing financial sector expertise and infrastructure. "This is precisely what millions of working Canadians across the country, who don't currently have access to a pension place at the workplace, need -- a simple and viable way to build a comfortable retirement," emphasized Mr. Swedlove.  "Because of our existing platforms in serving other pension plans, we can hit the ground running to provide top quality low cost PRPP services to Canadians, particularly small and medium sized businesses."

The CLHIA continues to urge all provinces to follow the lead demonstrated by Ottawa, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan and introduce PRPP enabling legislation as soon as possible ... the sooner they make workplace solutions available to their workers, the better off those workers will be in retirement.

About the CLHIA
Established in 1894, the CLHIA is a voluntary association whose member companies account for 99 per cent of Canada's life and health insurance business. The industry provides a wide range of financial security products such as life insurance, annuities (including RRSPs, RRIFs and pensions) and supplementary health insurance to 28 million Canadians. It also holds close to $647 billion of assets in Canada and employs about 150,100 Canadians.

SOURCE: Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc.

Wendy Hope, Vice President, External Relations, [phone]