Jerome Bitun

Starting January 2012, there will be changes made to the Canada Pension Plan or CPP. Here are the changes according to Service Canada 's website. These changes will affect you if you are: an employee who contributes to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), whether you are just starting your career or you are planning to retire soon; a self-employed person who contributes to the CPP; between the ages of 60 and 70 and you work while receiving your CPP retirement pension (or if you work outside of Quebec while receiving a Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) retirement pension); or an employer who contributes to the CPP on behalf of your employees. You will not be affected by these changes if you started receiving a CPP retirement pension before December 31, 2010, and you remain out of the work force. The CPP operates throughout Canada, except in Quebec, where the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) provides benefits. These changes do not  apply to the QPP. For information about the QPP, visit the Q...

Retirement This year, 2011, marks the year the first of the baby boomers turn 65. Baby boomers are those who were born between 1946 to 1964. So in this edition of the newsletter, I thought it would be good to talk about retirement since we’ve just finished the RRSP season. When you retire, you qualify for some government pension or benefits like CPP, OAS and GIS. So what are they and how do they work? Here’s a summary. CPP – Canada Pension Plan A CPP retirement pension is a monthly benefit paid to people who have contributed to the Canada Pension Plan. The pension is designed to replace about 25% of a person's earnings from employment, up to a maximum amount. For 2010, the maximum amount it was $934.17. Not very much is it? But there’s good news! CPP has increased their maximum benefit. For 2011, the maximum CPP benefit you can get is $960.00. Woohoo! And if you qualify, you can get Old Age Security (OAS) benefit as well, up to $524.23 and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) of $661...