If you’re considering investing in a pension plan, you’re right to scan the horizon and ask, what’s in it for me? You foot the bills, after all. So, what, exactly, are you paying for? It turns out, a lot. When you offer DBplus, a turnkey defined benefit pension solution, your team knows you’re tangibly investing in their future—and that investment pays off in ways that might surprise you.
FIVE BENEFITS FOR YOUR FIRM
1. Attract and retain talent
In a 2024 survey, 77% of Canadian employers agreed that offering retirement benefits helped them retain employees, and 67% said it helped them compete for talent. What’s good for you is good for your team. 82% of employees reported that having a pension plan made them more likely to stay.1
2. Increase productivity
In a 2023 survey, 58% of employers who’d introduced or improved retirement benefits in the previous 12 months reported better employee productivity. Compare that to employers who didn’t enhance (or introduce) a program: just a third of them reported improved results.2
3. Stay flexible
When your firm signs on with DBplus, you can choose to have legal staff, non-legal staff, or both join the plan.
You and your employees make equal contributions between 5% and 9% of their gross earnings—but there’s flexibility within that range. You might decide, for example, to reward the lawyers on your team with a 7% salary match, and 5% for your support team (or vice versa). There’s even a dip-your-toe-in option that allows you to start at 3%, with the firm agreeing to increase that by 0.5% or 1% annually until you reach the minimum 5% matching threshold.
4. Outsource your administration
You’re a lawyer, not an administrator. The administrative aspects of DBplus are managed for you at no extra cost. DBplus is managed by the CAAT pension plan —and the team at CAAT handles all investment management, plan administration, governance, communication, and member education. You simply match your employee contributions and send the related administrative data to CAAT. CAAT, in turn, monitors that data (flagging, for example, when a 71-year-old employee can no longer contribute), and provides guidance about how to record these contributions on your firm’s financial statements.
5. Keep your costs low
Your only costs are the contributions you make on behalf of your employees. That’s it. There are no membership dues or administrative fees. And your firm’s share of each employee’s contribution is a benefit expense for tax purposes.
WHY PENSIONS MATTER MORE THAN EVER
Three benefits for every pension participant (including you):
1. Saving for retirement is hard, and getting harder
Money is the number one stressor for Canadians—more than work, relationships, family, or health. And, as stressors go, it seems to be gaining on us: 42% of Canadians say financial concerns top their stress list. That’s up from 38% just three years ago.3
Related: Financial stress—the not-so-shocking saga continues
2. Pensions help—but not everyone has one
A lack of pensions could be one reason. In 2021, just 38% of Canadian workers were in a registered pension plan (RPP), according to Statistics Canada.4
Some good news: Of those with an RPP, two thirds have a Defined Benefit (DB) plan, a more predictable option than a Defined Contribution (DC) plan.
3. Pay me in pension
A recent survey revealed that 83% of employers who don’t offer retirement benefits believe their employees would prefer a raise. In fact, 63% of workers said, no, thank you, we’d prefer a pension.5
READY TO LEARN MORE?
Book a 30-minute meeting with a pension specialist to learn how to offer your team (and yourself) a pension that promises secure and predictable retirement income for life.
Written for Lawyers Financial by Chris Goldie, a Toronto-based writer and editor.
Sources:
1. Angus Reid and Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, “2024 Canadian Employer Pension Survey,” October 2024
2. Angus Reid and Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, “2023 Canadian Employer Pension Survey,” August 2023
3. FP Canada, “2025 Financial Stress Index,” March 2025
4. Statistics Canada, “Pension plans in Canada, as of January 1, 2022,” published in June 2023
5. Angus Reid and Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, “2024 Canadian Employer Pension Survey,” October 2024
