A message from our Chief Pension Officer (CPO), Susan Kay-Dunn:
WISE Trust is proud to celebrate our two-year anniversary on July 1st, 2022!
While our pension plan has a long history – having been established in 1940 as the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s (WSIB) Employee Pension Plan – the story of WISE Trust is still in its infancy.
On July 1, 2020, we opened our virtual doors for business. Unlike most newly created JSPP’s who started operations with sizeable teams and a good sense of their business needs, WISE Trust forged new territory with a “build as you go” approach. Starting with just 3 employees and a blank page, we had a unique opportunity to build a “fit for purpose” future state. Since that time, we have made remarkable progress on that journey.
Over the past two years we have build the foundation for WISE Trust; including building our foundational IT infrastructure, launching our new website and onboarding a financial system provider and implementation partner. We hired project team members and business leads, eventually growing our tiny team of three to 35. By the end of our first full year of operations we had a plan to transition financial and pension administration services over from one of plan sponsors, the WSIB. By January 2023 we anticipate that we will complete the transition, with the help of our partners: IMCO, State Street, WSIB and Royal Bank. In addition, by the second quarter of 2023, we anticipate that the final remaining support services will have transitioned to our virtual workforce, making WISE Trust a fully independent and self-sufficient pension plan. This represents a staggering amount of work for a small, fully virtual workforce, all accomplished while assuming responsibility for administering the pension plan for our 10,000+ members.
At this time, I would like to acknowledge the ongoing partnership and support from WSIB who has continued to provide support services for us while we get up and running. I would also like to acknowledge our WISE Trust team. While many of our team members have been with us less than a year, each day they demonstrate outstanding commitment to the organization and dedication to our over 10,000 members. Finally, thank you to our participating employers and trusted partners. Together we can celebrate the amazing progress we have made in standing up WISE Trust.
