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 […]
Multiple stakeholder groups are praising the 2019 federal budget’s proposal to amend tax rules to allow for late-life and variable annuity structures. The proposed advanced life deferred annuity would be a qualifying annuity purchase under registered retirement savings plans, registered retirement income funds, including trusts run by these accounts, as well as defined contribution pension […]
Alongside recent reforms to funding rules for Ontario-registered defined benefit pension plans, the Ontario government also made changes to the pension benefits guarantee fund, including improvements to benefits payable by the PBGF and changes to its annual assessment paid by employers. Employers should budget for the change in their assessments, effectively beginning with assessments due in 2019. […]
The Association of Canadian Pension Management has mixed feelings about the federal government’s proposed methods for enhancing retirement security in the wake of the high-profile Sears Canada Inc. bankruptcy last year. During an ACPM webinar last week, Todd Saulnier, the chair of ACPM’s national policy committee and a principal at Mercer, said some of the federal government’s options […]
In its 2019 budget on Tuesday, the federal government announced a number of proposals regarding pension protections, off the back of recent high-profile corporate bankruptcies that have thrown the sustainability of some Canadians’ defined benefit plans into doubt during the past few years. Indeed, the federal government received 4,400 submissions in response to its request for comment on the […]
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 […]
Group annuity sales in Canada topped out at a record high of $4.6 billion in 2018, beating 2017’s sales of $3.7 billion, according to the latest data from Sun Life Financial. This represents an acceleration in the market, which had been on the rise, with 2014’s sales hitting $2.5 billion. Strong sales in the last quarter […]
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 […]
Last year was a strong year for the Canadian annuity market and the start of 2019 is looking promising as well, said Marie Desrochers, director of client relationships and defined benefit solutions at Sun Life Financial, speaking at a CI Institutional Investment Management event this week. While official year-end numbers aren’t out for 2018, Sun […]
Defined benefit pension plans aren’t just better for Canadian workers, but for the country’s economy in general, according to a new study by the Canadian Public Pension Leadership Council. Statistics Canada data from 2018 showed 37.5 per cent of Canadian workers have some type of pension or retirement savings plan through their workplace, and 25.2 per cent […]