One in three (30 per cent) U.S. defined contribution plan sponsors have adopted a solution to deal with plan members’ need for a lifetime income, according to a survey by Willis Towers Watson. That’s up from 23 per cent in 2016, the last time the organization surveyed plan sponsors on this issue. The survey, which polled 164 large […]
Canadian insurers paid out $98 billion in benefits in 2018, an increase of seven per cent over 2017, according to the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association’s annual fact book. Similar to previous years, this was led by retirement benefits from annuities ($49 billion), health benefits for prescription drugs and extended health providers like dentists […]
In its capacity as plan administrator, Morneau Shepell Ltd. purchased several buy-in annuity contracts for the Stelco Inc. pension plan in July. The goals of the transaction are to preserve the favourable financial position of the plan, ensure fair treatment of all members and maximize benefit protection, said Morneau Shepell in a press release. The Canada Life Assurance Co., […]
With the private sector’s move from defined benefit to defined contribution pension plans and rising life expectancies, the issue of retirement decumulation is increasing in importance. Decumulation deals with converting retirement savings into income that must be managed over the rest of the retiree’s lifetime. It can be a challenge for Canadians who don’t have a significant […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plans maintained their solvency levels through the second quarter of 2019, according to Mercer’s latest pension health index. The index, which represents the solvency ratio of a hypothetical plan, reached 106 per cent as of June 30, 2019, an increase from 102 per cent at the year’s outset. The current solvency […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plans maintained their solvency levels through the second quarter of 2019, according to Mercer’s latest pension health index. The index, which represents the solvency ratio of a hypothetical plan, reached 106 per cent as of June 30, 2019, an increase from 102 per cent at the year’s outset. The current solvency […]
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, […]
I was lucky enough to know my great-grandmother. I remember her living to the age of 94 — “incredible,” my family would say. But not as incredible as my great-grandfather. Though I never knew him, he lived to the age of 101. Growing up in the 1980s, I recall that someone living to age 100 […]
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 […]
With a defined benefit plan closed since 1991, Husky Energy Inc. was facing a dilemma. It wanted to annuitize the plan but had active members still accruing benefits and wasn’t ready for a complete windup. To the organization’s knowledge, no products were available in Canada for plans to provide an annuity for active members still […]