When Canadian Investment Review held its inaugural Global Investment Conference 20 years ago, foreign investments were something of a niche for Canadian pension plans. With the foreign property rule, investors couldn’t hold more than 20 per cent of their assets in non-Canadian investments. But jump ahead to today, and many pension funds have already made […]
A recent Benefits Canada pulse survey teases out the risks that really keep pension funds up at night.
Diversified pooled fund managers saw a median return of three per cent before management fees in the first quarter of the year, according to findings from Morneau Shepell Ltd. The benchmark portfolio used by many pension funds yielded a 3.1 per cent return during the same period. Morneau Shepell surveyed 330 pooled funds managed by nearly […]
Forget crystal balls, tarot cards and tea leaves. Fortune-telling has no place at a futurist’s desk. “We’re not in the business of predicting the future,” says Laura Schlehuber, a futurist and a manager at consulting firm Kalypso LP in Houston. “But we do like to question our assumptions and prepare for alternatives.” While organizations consult […]
Moderators: Jeremy Evanson, partner, administrative solutions practice; and Michelle Loder, partner, defined contribution solutions, at Morneau Shepell Ltd. Once the new Canada Pension Plan benefits take hold, the income replacement ratio will increase to 33 per cent from 25 per cent, said Loder. “Given this, and in light of the increased premiums that will also […]
Younger Canadians are at risk of shouldering any future deficit in the expanded Canada Pension Plan if it experiences shortfalls in investment returns, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. The institute’s report references calculations by Canada’s chief actuary, published in October 2016, that predicted the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board must earn an […]
In its report on employer pension plans in Canada published earlier this month, Statistics Canada noted the overwhelming majority of plan members are in trusteed arrangements. Of the 6.2 million members of employer-sponsored pension plans, 5.2 million are in arrangements managed by trusteed funds. But when it comes to just the defined contribution side of […]
When Staples Canada Inc. moved to a smoke-free environment at its two Ontario corporate offices in January 2016, the company helped its employees prepare for the change by launching a six-month smoking-cessation program. Staples introduced the program to help employees who smoked adapt to the new environment, says Kate Tilsley, director of North America stores, […]
CAA South Central Ontario will share the lessons learned during its transition to a defined contribution pension plans at the 2017 Benefits and Pension Summit in Toronto on April 11-12. The organization transitioned to a defined contribution arrangement in 2013. In the following three years, the organization focused on the defined contribution plan it introduced […]
The first month of 2017 has proven to be a busy one for the pension, investment, benefits and human resources industries. Below are the 10 most popular online news stories in January: CPP benefits rise by 1.4% in 2017 What do Golf Town’s troubles say about retail investment prospects? Have your say: Should the feds tax […]