Canadian investors trying to diversify outside Canada got hit squarely in the eye by the stellar rise of the loonie. So said pension industry veteran Philip Falls when I caught up with him at Canadian Investment Review’s Global Investment Conference in Banff last month. His message—plan sponsors have had their confidence in global markets shaken […]
Joe and Sally joined the same company right out of school and enrolled in the registered group savings plan. Sally was three months older than Joe and retired September 1, 2008 with a $600,000 portfolio. Joe’s portfolio was worth only $480,000 when he received his simulated gold watch a few months later. Had they been […]
Coverage of the 2011 Global Investment Conference.
The economic downturn of 2008 exposed the risk in asset allocation products designed in and built for a “Goldilocks” environment of non-inflationary growth. With a changing environment, it is time to revisit the assumptions and models used in the past to construct DC asset allocation products. Most DC plan options employ the traditional 60/40 asset […]
It’s certainly no secret that during the last decade, the trend within the Canadian pension landscape has been for plan sponsors to move away from traditional DB plans and toward DC plans. This need was primarily driven by the desire to do away with plan risks around longevity, interest rates and investments that were becoming […]
The results of Towers Watson’s annual Pensions Risk Survey—presented today at The Conference Board of Canada’s 2011 Summit on the Future of Pensions: Rebuilding Pensions, Rethinking Retirement in Toronto—indicated that DB plan sponsors continue to convert to DC arrangements for current or future employees. “In the ’70s and ’80s, DB was in its heyday,” said […]
The Halifax Regional Municipality Pension Plan (HRMPP), which has approximately $1.2 billion in assets, has been investing in alternative asset classes since 2007. Here, it provides a plan sponsor’s view on tactics for approaching alternative investment strategies. What are alternatives? The definition of alternative investments is not entirely clear. Some refer to them as investments […]
Despite efforts at reform, the number of DB plans in Canada is still falling in favour of DC plans. Are the investment risks just too great to ignore? Or can DB plans be designed differently to address the inherent mismatch between liabilities and assets? Malcolm Hamilton weighs in. Read Ian Markham’s thoughts on the topic, […]
IMF paper argues crisis might have changed them for the worst.
Coverage of the 2010 Investment Innovation Conference.