Going back to school? Retiring?

Take your CA with you!

CAs work hard to earn their designation. They're understandably proud of what the designation represents, and recognise the important value it adds to their professional careers. Nonetheless, when members retire or withdraw from the workforce for a significant period of time, they must reassess the designation's value in terms of cost.

We're proud of every BC CA, and we want to make sure that any member faced with this decision can decide to keep the CA behind their name.

In a survey of almost 400 members, we asked what you thought about fees and about your plans for the future to make sure our fee waivers and income thresholds are up to date with today's world. As you'll see, your answers have set our direction.

You told us:

* You plan to retire between 55 and 70 years of age.

* Most of you (62%) plan to work part-time once you've retired-and all but a few of you (6%) anticipate earning an active income greater than what currently qualifies for the fee concession.

Here's what we're proposing to bring our fees in line with today's career and lifestyle balance:

1. Income threshold

Currently, the income threshold used for all of the following fee reductions is: active income of less than 10 times the annual member dues (currently $8900). Only 8% of members felt this level was appropriate; most thought it should be significantly higher. The level we're recommending is $23,000, to be adjusted for cost of living in the future.

2. Fee waivers for inactive members

We currently have three "inactive" waivers: financial hardship, total medical disability, and out of the workforce caring for dependants. No change is recommended for the financial hardship and total medical disability fee waivers (100% waiver of member dues).

We recommend that members out of the workforce caring for dependents and earning less than $23,000 have their dues reduced to 25%, rather than the current 30%.

We also recommend adding a fourth category-full-time university attendance-- to reflect and encourage today's environment of continuous learning. We recommend allowing full-time university students with a taxable income of less than $23,000 to pay 25% of full dues.

3. Retirement/semi-retirement concession

Your thoughts were clear about retirement:

* A majority of respondents (60%) felt that members who are retired or partially retired should receive a fee reduction.

* Almost 95% of these felt that retired members should pay 25% or more of full dues.

Three changes are proposed to the retirement concession:

i. Moving the combined age plus years as a CA to 90 (from 80) to bring BC in line with other provinces. Very few (35) CAs would be affected by this change. We recommend they receive a fee reduction, even though their age plus number of years as a CA is less than 90.

ii.Qualifying members making less than the $23,000 active income threshold described above would pay 25% of full dues.

iii.Continuing to charge full dues to members earning more than the active income threshold.

4. Fee reduction/waiver level for "Life" members

* Almost 70% of respondents support a fee reduction for life members (those who have been CAs for more than 40 years, with at least 10 years as members in BC).

* 65% of respondents felt life members should pay 25% of full dues or higher.

Taking your views into account, we recommend that life members who earn more than the minimum active income threshold of $23,000 (see No.1) pay 25% of full fees. Life members earning less than this income threshold would pay only a nominal administrative fee of $50.

(Current 40-year members have already been granted a permanent waiver of member dues and will not be affected by the recommended change.)

A word about CICA fees

CA dues include dues to both your provincial Institute and to the Canadian Institute for Chartered Accountants, both of which you submit on one invoice to the ICABC. One of our questions-and I'm sure one of yours-is what impact changes to provincial dues have at a national level. The answer is simple: The CIC.Ks dues slide in direct relation to provincial ones. If we collect 25% of the total dues provincially, so does the CICA. So a 75% discount on member dues is a 75% discount on the total bill.

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YOUR INPUT

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These proposals were developed primarily by the ICABC Membership Committee. Council has reviewed them on a preliminary basis, and is now seeking member

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commentary before making final decisions in February 2003. Send your comments to me at rees@ica.bc.ca, or to your president at president@ica.bc.ca. Let Council hear your voice.

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BY RICHARD REES, FCA CEO