With an aging population of baby boomers and a general trend toward closing defined benefit pensions, many plan sponsors are facing negative cash flow situations. In response, retiree solutions are gaining more importance, says Michael Augustine, managing director of portfolio management at TD Asset Management. While pension plans can purchase an annuity through a life […]
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions is introducing some measures to help federally regulated private defined benefit pension plans get through the difficult times caused by the coronavirus. Particularly, the regulator is temporarily freezing portability transfers and annuity purchases. In both cases, plan sponsors can write to the OSFI to for consent to […]
Domtar Corp. is entering into an agreement with Sun Life Financial for a group annuity buyout. The transactions will transfer about $360 million in obligations and related assets from the paper mill company’s defined benefit plans in Canada over to the insurer. Read: Rayonier Advanced Materials pension taking on annuity buyout In addition, it will convert about $101 million […]
Rayonier Advanced Materials is transferring a portion of its Canadian defined benefit plan obligations with a $293-million annuity buyout. Through the transaction, Sun Life will take over the responsibility for pension benefits owed to nearly 1,500 Ontario and Quebec pensioners and beneficiaries. The plan members include former employees of forestry company Tembec, which was acquired […]
A total of $0.9 billion in group annuity sales were placed in Canada in the first quarter of 2019, roughly in line with the same period last year, when sales reached $1 billion in the first quarter of the year, according to a quarterly update from Willis Towers Watson. In the first quarter of 2019, […]
Generally, when a pension plan goes through a solvency or hypothetical windup valuation, the actuaries will value some of the expected liabilities as commuted lump-sum payments and some as annuity payments. When valuing the annuity portion, plan actuaries often use a proxy method based on guidance from the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. Instead of this […]
Buy-in and buyout annuity sales hit their highest level in Canadian history in 2018, reaching $4.5 billion, an increase of $800 million over 2017, according to data from Eckler Ltd. The purchases represent a 20 per cent increase in the volume of group annuities bought by Canadian pension plans, year over year. Buy-in annuities, which made up more than […]
In a move protecting its defined benefit pension promise for the long haul, commercial vehicle manufacturer Navistar Canada is purchasing more than $300 million in group annuity contracts. The transactions are with RBC Insurance and iA Financial Group and valued at $333 million. From May 1, 2019, the insurers will be responsible for administering pension payments […]
Three-quarters (76 per cent) of U.S. defined benefit plan sponsors with de-risking goals intend to completely divest all of their DB plan liabilities at some point in the future, according to MetLife’ annual pension risk transfer survey. Among all plan sponsors surveyed 10 per cent said they’ll completely divest their plans within the next two years; 24 per […]
Many defined benefit plans’ funded statuses are in relatively good territory, but with an uncertain investment atmosphere on the horizon, is now a good time for plans to consider taking risk off the table by purchasing an annuity? And for plans looking to de-risk in the future, what considerations are there from an investment perspective? […]