The Co-operative Superannuation Society pension plan is one of Canada’s largest defined contribution plans, growing from its Saskatchewan roots in 1939 to include some 351 employers from across the country today. Martin McInnis, executive director of the plan, will speak about the benefits of a multi-employer defined contribution plan and whether they could be the way of the future during a session […]
The Pension Investment Association of Canada is calling out Ontario’s proposed defined benefit solvency funding framework for its lack of solvency reserve account structures, a model that exists in the regulatory landscapes in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec. In a letter to Charles Sousa, the province’s minister of finance, the association’s chair Brenda King notes it has advocated in favour […]
When Loblaw Companies Ltd. purchased annuities to reduce the risk in its defined benefit pension plans in January 2017, the $350-million, inflation-linked buyout kicked off a year of significant activity in the Canadian annuity market. Group annuity purchases had reached nearly $2.5 billion by the end of the third quarter of 2017, according to Willis […]
Ahead of the next federal budget, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association is recommending the government allow Canadians to hold annuities within tax-free savings accounts. The CLHIA noted in its submission to the Department of Finance that more Canadians are reaching retirement without the security provided by a defined benefit pension plan. As such, it […]
Since Canadians rely on a patchwork of incomes to fund their retirement, the worry by many of running out of money is a real possibility. A new report from the C.D. Howe Institute proposes a pooled risk savings program that could provide more security for retirees of advanced age. “Retirement will span beyond age 85 for more than half […]
More than 60 per cent of Canadians are concerned they’ll outlive their retirement savings and 45 per cent don’t feel confident they’ll be able to afford the post-work lifestyle they want, according to a new survey by RBC Insurance Services Inc. The survey, which polled 1,000 Canadians aged 55 to 75, also found respondents use a […]
Some $2.5 billion of group annuity purchases were placed during the first three quarters of 2017, in line with the total annual sales for the past few years, according to Willis Towers Watson’s latest report on the Canadian annuity market. The vast majority of year-to-date annuity transactions were for ongoing pension plans, which demonstrates the continued trend […]
Retirement savings products once again led the way in the growth of the life and health insurance industry, according to the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association’s annual fact book. Of the $631 billion in employer-sponsored pension plans, the industry managed $142 billion in 2016, up from $131 billion in 2015. And life insurers paid […]
As pension plans move into better solvency positions this year, should they be lowering their risks by purchasing an annuity or looking at investment strategies to manage them in-house? From a private debt perspective, it’s possible for a plan to structure investments to mirror the de-risking benefits of buying an annuity from an insurance company, […]
While defined contribution plans were a small piece of the pension market when Benefits Canada first rolled off the presses in 1977, the Co-operative Superannuation Society had already been operating for almost 40 years by that point. Founded in 1939 in Saskatoon, the society’s pension plan is one of the country’s oldest and largest defined […]