Could robo-advisors be the nudge plan sponsors need to offer members investment advice?
Discussions about pension plan de-risking tend to focus on minimizing—or at least managing—financial risk for DB pension plan sponsors. Across the spectrum of pension risk management strategies, plan sponsors often consider a DC plan to be a low-risk, or no-risk, solution, particularly if they previously provided a DB plan. In fact, when DB plan sponsors talk of de-risking, that is often “code” for converting their plan to a DC arrangement. DC plans certainly mitigate plan sponsor financial risk: there is little danger of having to make higher sponsor contributions to account for market volatility or increased longevity, as is possible in the case of a DB plan.
Major trends are reshaping Canada’s pension industry—from greater employer interest in sharing or off-loading pension risk to increased on de-risking.
Despite similar costs, the Dutch healthcare system features shorter wait times than the Canadian system with similar to superior outcomes, according to a study.
Offering coverage for paramedical services can make your benefits plan attractive to employees. But, at the same time, paramedicals can crush your plan’s experience, saddling you with runaway expenses. How can you manage the need for a quality health benefits plan while also keeping the plan sustainable?
Substance abuse can be a killer—literally—for employers in safety-critical industries. So what can they do about it?
There was a time when many workers didn’t have to worry about saving money for retirement. After all, that’s what their DB pension plan was for. Then the pendulum shifted and companies began switching to DC plans, putting more of the responsibility on employees to make investment decisions for their retirement savings.
Age to retirement isn't a good measure of risk tolerance.
Pension plans are the topic du jour, even outside of HR circles. Funding challenges, retirement income adequacy, intergenerational equity and financial stability are only a few of the issues under discussion and in the media. But all talk and little action may be sounding the death knell for these programs. Unless pension plans can evolve relatively quickly to meet changing needs and circumstances, they face extinction.
Thanks to steady growth in the global stock market, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) closed the 2012/13 fiscal year with an investment return of 13.8%. But long-term funding remains a challenge for CalSTRS, the largest teachers pension fund and second largest public pension fund in the United States.