A growing number of plan sponsors overseeing both DB and DC plans are establishing their own funds to consolidate the two investment structures. Out with the old, in with the new. That’s the story today in Canada’s pension industry. More companies are opting to close down defined benefit(DB) plans to new members, or do away […]
Two days that changed the way plan sponsors think. DAY ONE Session A(9:00-9:30): Aiming for success The message and the methods: the power of targeted communication in a DC world Lori Bak is vice-president, client relationships and marketing, Sun Life Financial In marketing lingo, it’s called “spray and pray”—the practice of sending communications to a […]
It’s been a hard few years for defined benefit(DB) plan sponsors. Low interest rates, poor equity market performance and a host of regulatory challenges have led to major shifts in their approach to asset management. And money managers have had to keep up with the changes, developing new and better approaches. It’s been challenging, but […]
One of the first investment lessons learned is to invest according to one’s risk tolerance and the investment constraints imposed by the nature of your liabilities. In the defined benefit world, assets that enable you to meet long-term retiree benefit obligations without taking investment risk will look like some kind of long-dated nominal or CPI-indexed […]
Long-term value and the role of the investment manager. The way risk and benchmarks are used by the investment industry is wrong and damaging to its clients. Different perceptions of risk bias the behaviour of the plan sponsor and the fund manager in important and different ways. On the one hand, plan sponsors are interested […]
© Copyright 2006 Rogers Publishing Ltd. The following article first appeared in the January 2006 edition of BENEFITS CANADA magazine. Question-errs? When guiding pension plan members towards good investments, the right risk questionnaire can make all the difference. By Richard Deaves One of the most important decisions an investor needs to make is how […]
© Copyright 2006 Rogers Publishing Ltd. The following article first appeared in the December 2005 edition of BENEFITS CANADA magazine. Tomorrow’s forecast: Caution Investment strategies for the coming year will be tempered by plan sponsors’ appetite and tolerance for risk and their time horizons. By Peter Arnold Plan sponsors have had a lot on […]
There will always be those DC plan members who fall into default options and negatively impact their retirement. DC structures need to be altered? Ever since the migration of Canadian retirement plans from defined benefit designs to defined contribution(DC) designs began, the DC industry has been diligently working at educating plan members on how to […]
© Copyright 2006 Rogers Publishing Ltd. The following article first appeared in the February 2005 edition of BENEFITS CANADA magazine. Sound governance should be a focus not just for the companies held in institutional investment portfolios, but also for the pension plans themselves. Don Wilkinson, Partner, Deloitte and Touche LLP in Toronto and volunteer […]