2023 Winter newsletter

A message from Jackie Laser

It’s that time of year once again – a time to reflect on our shared efforts and achievements and to express our sincere thanks and gratitude.

As you know, Mackenzie was affected earlier this year by a cybersecurity incident at InvestorCOM, a third-party vendor we use for print and delivery services of client materials. We worked diligently to support dealers, advisors, and investors when we learned of the incident, reaching out with information and resources, and offering impacted investors comprehensive credit monitoring and identity theft protection for a period of two years.

We want to thank you for your partnership during this challenging time. We’re profoundly grateful for the way that you and your advisors supported your clients — answering questions, educating, and encouraging them to enroll for credit monitoring. Your hard work and collaboration played a big part in helping us successfully navigate the incident.

We’d also like to recognize some of the wins we’ve had in 2023, including our ongoing initiative to modernize the technologies in our contact centre. We launched a callback feature earlier this year and more recently, we expanded our interactive voice response (IVR) capabilities to offer callers more flexibility and choice. We’ll continue to roll out more functionality in 2024 to make it easier for dealers and advisors to do business with Mackenzie.

As always, we want to thank you for your help in supporting our launches and product events, and the work you’ve done to ensure their success. Partnership is at the core of our culture and how we do business, and we’re very lucky to have partners like you!

Wishing you and your teams a happy holiday season with friends and family and continued success in 2024.

Sincerely,

Jackie Laser

Vice President, Dealer Relations & Operations

First Home Savings Accounts (FHSA) at Mackenzie Investments

Mackenzie has expanded its suite of investment solutions to help Canadian investors meet their long-term financial goals.

In June, we began accepting First Home Savings Accounts (FHSA) for nominee plans, allowing prospective first-time Canadian home buyers save for their first home, tax-free.

In late November, FHSAs became available for Mackenzie client name accounts. Refer to our earlier communication for more information on FHSAs at Mackenzie.

RESP and RDSP application updates

Mackenzie is updating its RESP and RDSP applications to reflect changes announced in the 2023 Federal Budget. 

Registered Education Savings Plans (RESPs):

• Amendments to the Income Tax Act (Canada) to allow a beneficiary enrolled in a full-time program to withdraw $8,000 in the first 13 consecutive weeks and up to $4,000 per 13-week period if the beneficiary is enrolled in a part-time program.
• Divorced or separated parents will be able to establish/open a new joint RESPs for one or more of their children.

Registered Disability Savings Accounts (RDSPs):

• Extend the Qualifying Family Member measure by three years, to December 31, 2026.
• Siblings as Qualifying Family Members: the definition of “Qualifying Family Member” will be broadened to include a brother or sister of the adult beneficiary. 

Updated applications will be available shortly here.

We’ll be making further changes to these applications in May 2024 to align with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) data collection practices. ESDC now collects gender instead of sex and has added a non‑binary gender option.

Amendments to Rule H1 for Pre-Authorized Debits (PADs)

As a reminder, changes to the Canadian Payments Association's Rule H1 come into effect in January 2024. 

One-time PAD agreements will now automatically terminate once the payment has been completed. This means that a new form will be required each time a client wants to execute a one-time purchase to draw funds from their bank account. 

To avoid delays and minimize any disruption to clients, you can place a wire order buy that settles via EFT, which doesn’t require a client-signed form.

Streamlining our delivery of Annual Information Statements

Each year, Mackenzie produces Annual Information Statements (AIS) for U.S. taxpayer clients who’ve requested this information.

Mackenzie now offers secure e-delivery for these statements, allowing us to provide AIS to clients earlier and giving them more time to work with their tax advisor. It also helps to reduce our environment footprint, in keeping with Mackenzie’s efforts to conduct business in a sustainable and responsible way.  

In November, we sent letters to advisors with clients who have standing AIS requests to let them know about this option. Advisors were asked to provide us with email addresses for clients who prefer e-delivery and submit any new AIS requests by December 31, 2023.

If you’d like more information about AIS e-delivery, please speak with your Dealer Relations Account Manager.

Reminder: Documents not required for EPA-eligible trades

As a reminder, documents should not be submitted to Mackenzie for EPA-eligible trades. 

Our goal is to avoid processing delays and errors that may result from discrepancies between the wire order and the paperwork that some advisors still submit.

It’s also a win for advisors, who can save time and administrative effort by not submitting documents when back-up isn’t required. Our Quick Reference Guide can assist advisors with document requirements for EPA-eligible trades.

Important year-end reminders

Year-end is an important time for you and your business. To help support you, Mackenzie offers a dedicated page for year-end information, including important dates and processing deadlines.

We’ll continue to add information over the coming weeks, including guidelines for First 60-Day contributions and our 2023 statement and tax slip production schedules. Please share this link with your advisors and be sure to bookmark the page so you can check in regularly for important updates.

Dealer Relations team