Role of the participating employer

First, you need to enrol in the plan.

• Enrol your professional corporation or clinic as a participating employer in Medicus.
• Discuss Medicus with any eligible employees you may have and offer an opportunity to enrol as members. As a participating employer, you must offer them the opportunity to participate, but participation is voluntary.
  • You’ll be able to enrol eligible employees at the same time as you enrol as the participating employer – simply complete an enrolment form for each employee and submit it.
  • If you are a physician joining through your professional corporation, the employee you enrol may be just yourself.

It’s the participating employer’s responsibility to make all contributions to the plan. Note that contributions to the plan are generally tax deductible for your corporation.

• The participating employer makes contributions equal to 18% of the annual capped pensionable earnings paid to its enrolled employees (members).
  • For 2024, this cap is $180,500, which means the maximum contribution a participating employer can make, per eligible employee, in 2024 is $32,490.
• Once your enrolment is complete, Medicus will advise you of your monthly contribution amount, which will reflect the information that you provided during enrolment, including your plan entry date and estimated pensionable earnings.
• You will be asked to complete a pre-authorized debit form and provide a void cheque. This will allow Medicus to withdraw the required monthly contribution amount from your corporate bank account.
• Each month, you are responsible for ensuring that there are enough funds in your corporate bank account for Medicus to withdraw the contribution amount.

Every year, you’ll be asked to complete an administrative attestation that relates to keeping records up to date and confirms that key obligations have been met.

• This step is designed to help streamline the administrative activities for you as a participating employer, and aims to mitigate operational risk to the plan, including information reporting.
• The information provided by you on this attestation is very important as it affects the amount of the contributions to, and benefits earned under, the plan. It includes:
  • enrolment of any/all eligible employees
  • reporting of member information, including pensionable earnings
  • reporting of pension adjustments for members
  • reporting on changes to corporate structure

Contributions to the plan are generally tax deductible for your corporation.

Pension adjustments
In accordance with Canadian tax laws and reporting requirements related to registered pension plans, your eligible employee(s) enrolled in Medicus will receive a pension adjustment (PA) for the annual benefit they accrue in the plan.

• The Administration Centre will calculate the PA at the beginning of each year (for the prior year) and distribute this information to participating employers. 
• The PA must be reported on the T4 slip that you issue to your employee(s). The PA will reduce their registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) contribution room for the following year.

For more information, speak with your accountant or tax advisor, or reference CRA information on filing a T4 slip summary.

If you’re hiring a new eligible physician to your team, Medicus is a great way to enhance the value of the total package offered. There is comfort and financial peace of mind in knowing that part of the employment package includes a pension plan that will continue to grow over time and provide a lifetime pension income.

For your new hire(s), Medicus should become part of your onboarding process for any new eligible physicians you hire. Please ensure that you offer the plan and:

• discuss the plan with the new hire
• share the Member Guide and medicuspensionplan.com website
• submit either a completed member enrolment or a signed opt-out form

Once your new employee is enrolled, your corporation makes the monthly contributions to the plan.

It’s the role of the participating employer to track and report specific life events such as leaves, disability, and others, that relate to your enrolled physician employees (members).

Member life events may impact the pension benefits earned and/or paid out of the plan, so reporting these to the Administration Centre is an important step. 

If there is any change to the corporate status, share ownership or nature of your business and operations, you must advise the Administration Centre as soon as possible, and as part of your annual attestation. 

Voluntary: Participating employers can voluntarily choose to leave the plan, and/or will automatically terminate participation when their last employee terminates or retires.
 
Termination: The Plan Sponsor Committee can terminate a participating employer’s participation in Medicus if the participating employer obligations under the Participation Agreement, the Trust Agreement or the plan text are not fulfilled, such as providing inaccurate information or data, not making required contributions, changing corporate status or share ownership to no longer meet the plan’s eligibility requirements, or if it is determined to be in the best interests of the plan.