The Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan is appointing Karen Lockridge as director of responsible investing. In the new role, she’ll be responsible for developing and refining the CAAT’s responsible investing strategy, including research, analysis and reporting on the pension plan’s environmental, social and governance activities. Lockridge will also provide guidance to the […]
Jessica Tincopa may leave the photography business she spent 14 years building for one reason — to find coverage for fertility treatment. After six miscarriages, Tincopa and her husband started saving for in vitro fertilization, which can cost more than US$20,000. But the coronavirus pandemic wiped out their savings and they can’t find coverage for IVF in their state’s health insurance marketplace. So the California couple is saving again and […]
With Yukon implementing a transitioning policy on April 3 to expand the use of biosimilar medicines in its public drug plan, it’s important for benefits plan sponsors that create a similar policy for their workplace plans to be clear in their communication and education with employees. “It’s never easy to switch a medication, especially when […]
Millennial workers who rent for their entire careers must save 50 per cent more than homeowners in order to have a sufficient monthly income in retirement, according to a new report by Mercer Canada. The report, which analyzed findings from Mercer’s database, found millennials who rent need to save eight-times their annual salaries to retire […]
The median solvency ratio of Canadian defined benefit pension plans rose during the first quarter of 2023, from 113 per cent at the beginning of the year to 116 per cent at the end of March, according to Mercer’s latest pension health pulse. The measure, which tracks the median solvency ratio of the DB plans […]
After reaching a near 40-year high over the past year, headline inflation started to cool in the final months of 2022 following a series of aggressive interest rate hikes by the Bank of Canada. According to Statistics Canada, the consumer price index was up 6.3 per cent year over year in December, down from a […]
To bolster Alaska’s public sector, a bipartisan effort is underway to relaunch the state’s pensions as defined benefit plans. “I’m carrying this bill on behalf of thousands of state employees who have worked for more than a decade to refine it,” said Cathy Giessel, leader of the state senate’s Republican majority during her introduction of […]
Amid the unprecedented events of the last three years, the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan has remained on course with its investment strategies, according to Asif Haque, the plan’s chief investment officer. “We held our focus on the key goal of the CAAT’s investment program. . . . The plan’s diversified asset […]
Finance’s toughest problem just got a whole lot trickier, thanks to the quandary of inflation. Legendary economist William F. Sharpe sealed his place in history when he collected the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on investment decision-making, but in defined contribution pension circles, the emeritus professor at Stanford University is […]
BluePrint CPAs is offering a paid gym membership exclusively to its in-office employees as part of the firm’s strategy to encourage a healthy workplace and incentivize in-person work. The Chatam, Ont.-based firm is also offering one paid hour per day for exercise, but employees can allot two hours per day to be out of the […]