In the fourth industrial revolution, technology is changing at a fast pace with a rolling effect on various industries. It’s also changing how people work, spend their money and save, said Jean-Philippe Provost, senior partner and wealth business leader at Mercer Canada. At the consultancy’s annual retirement outlook event on Thursday, Provost walked through current practices in the Canadian […]
Imagine there was an option to assemble the ideal retirement savings plan: a pinch of automatic features, a teaspoon of benefits guarantee, a cup of pooled investments, stirring the best elements of a defined benefit pension into the structure of a defined contribution plan. It may not be as simple as combining ingredients, but as […]
With the aging of Canada’s population, the move to defined contribution pension plans in the private sector and increases in life expectancy, the issue of decumulation is growing in importance. Decumulation deals with converting retirees’ savings into periodic income that must last for the rest of their lifetime. That can be a challenge for Canadians who […]
The Pension Investment Association of Canada is calling out Ontario’s proposed defined benefit solvency funding framework for its lack of solvency reserve account structures, a model that exists in the regulatory landscapes in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec. In a letter to Charles Sousa, the province’s minister of finance, the association’s chair Brenda King notes it has advocated in favour […]
The Canadian Institute of Actuaries has responded to Ontario’s description of its proposed funding rules for defined benefit plans. While the provincial government’s document, published in December 2017, included details on how the provision for adverse deviations would work under proposed new going-concern rules, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries’ submission says more information is required on how these were established. “We encourage the Ministry […]
After a six-year legal battle, it’s finally time for the former employees of the bankrupt technology firm Nortel Networks to learn what to do with their pension payments. In May 2015, when a court decided the fate of the remaining Nortel assets, it also signalled a light at the end of the tunnel for Canadian pensioners who have seen their […]
What’s the best way to transfer DB risk? Here are three strategies.
Recent mortality research in Canada has considerably extended the time at which virtually all closed-to-new- entrants DB pension plans are projected to end up with their “last man standing.” That has given a sudden boost to pension liabilities and normal costs, depending on which of several mortality tables is chosen (most notably, tables that differentiate between private and public sector workforces). It is readily apparent that more judgment is required in that choice than under the previous commonly used table. Never before have Canadian DB plan sponsors given so much attention to the life expectancy of their plan members.
We live in a digital age where we are bombarded by information at lightning speed. For many of us, it’s a struggle just to get through all of our email each day. But technological advancement also means better access to data, automation of laborious manual processes and outsourcing of HR functions so that companies can focus on their core business.
They're less expensive here than anywhere else: Mercer.