Contributing factors: 5 reasons a pension plan is money well spent
You foot the bills. But when it comes to your team’s pension, what exactly are you paying for? As it turns out, a lot.
If you’re considering investing in a pension plan, you’re right to scan the horizon and ask, what’s in it for me? We know pensions are good for employees, but what about your practice? When you offer DBplus, the defined benefit pension solution sponsored by Lawyers Financial, your investment pays off in ways that might surprise you.
Five benefits for your firm
1. Attract and retain talent
In the 2024 Canadian Employer Pension 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.
2. Increase productivity
A year earlier, in 2023, the same survey found that 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.
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 on 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 tax deductible.
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, according to the 2025 Financial Stress Index.
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.
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
The same Canadian Employer Pension survey we cited up top 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.”
Ready to learn more?
Visit lawyersfinancial.ca to learn how to offer your team (and yourself) a pension that promises secure and predictable retirement income for life.
Lawyers Financial, formerly The Canadian Bar Insurance Association (CBIA), is a not-for-profit organization that supports Canada’s legal community through pro bono financial planning and by sponsoring high-quality investment and insurance solutions. Lawyers Financial is a proud sponsor of CBA’s Well-Being Committee.
