Apr 10: Vancity's Lifetime Partnership

Vancouver, April 10, 2000 - PLAN is a non-profit agency which helps people to plan a more secure future for children or other relatives who have a disability, as well as provide advocacy and monitoring after the caregivers have died.

The partnership between Vancity and PLAN provides people with access to specialized financial products and services including will and estate planning and discretionary trusts.

"Since 1992, Vancity and PLAN have recognized that people with disabilities and their families have unique needs stemming from the issues they deal with in their personal lives and their finances," says George Scott, Vancity senior vice-president, Corporate Strategy and Marketing. "We are pleased to be officially joining forces to make access easier to unique financial services, legal advice and support."

"Vancity is the first financial institution in Canada to demonstrate sensitivity to people with disabilities and their families," says PLAN Executive Director Al Etmanski. "Vancity has developed a comprehensive package of products and services that will help to reassure a lot of people about the safety and well-being of their loved ones who cannot take care of themselves."

Vancity is Canada's largest credit union, with 39 branches in the Greater Vancouver/Fraser Valley area and Victoria, more than $6.4 billion in assets and 262,000 members. Vancity owns Citizens Bank of Canada serving members across the country by telephone, ATM and on the Internet. Both Vancity and Citizens Bank are guided by a commitment to corporate social responsibility.