With pensions and benefits at the root of rotating strikes by postal workers, Canada Post has made some concessions an efforts to secure an agreement with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). Canada Post has agreed to maintain a fully indexed DB plan for new hires, rather than move to a DC plan as […]
The treatment and protection of members’ accrued pensions in an underfunded DB pension plan following the insolvency of the plan sponsor has been the subject of many discussions since the 2008 financial crisis. Consultation papers, private members’ legislation and employee and union advocacy groups have all proposed (albeit unsuccessfully, at least to date) methods of […]
U.S. employees are participating in employer-sponsored DC plans at a record high rate, says a recent report from Aon Hewitt. And this is a direct result of the use of automatic enrollment. Aon Hewitt analyzed the DC saving and investing behaviours of more than three million employees across 120 large companies. The results show that […]
Sun Life Financial has announced the launch of the new Sun Life Wellness Institute, which will act as a health and wellness knowledge exchange for Canadian employers. Stuart Monteith, senior vice-president of group benefits, with Sun Life Financial Canada, said the company would invest in research through the institute aimed at highlighting the value of […]
Desjardins Financial has launched a new healthcare platform. The Health is Cool 360º platform will give eligible group insurance plan members 24/7 access to the information on treatment options for specific illnesses, services available in their areas, healthcare system wait times as well as other health-related tools. It is hoped that with this innovative tool, […]
Why worry about details? You are just being overcautious. That has never happened in the 20 years I have been administering the plan, and I doubt it will ever happen in the future. These are not acceptable reasons to ignore proper administration practices of a group insurance plan. Employees are aware of their rights, and […]
When we think of risk, we often define it in financial terms as risk by its very nature often comes with financial consequences. From a benefits plan perspective, we frequently focus on how benefits are funded and underwritten—how the risk is shared between plan sponsor, employee and insurer. However, not all risks are explicitly financial—some […]
In most recent article on BenefitsCanada.com, entitled Benefits cost management: myth or reality, one of the key messages was that despite a lot of discussion over the years there really isn’t a lot of active cost management built into many benefit plans. Based on the feedback I have received to the article, the message seemed […]
Employers in Europe and the U.S. remain fair to their employees and avoid shifting costs—despite a sharp increase in healthcare costs and health-related benefits, according to Mercer’s 2010 pan-European survey on employee health benefits. The survey, conducted in 14 European countries with responses from 556 employers, revealed that the cost of providing healthcare and health-related […]
For as long as I can remember, employee benefits plan sponsors have been talking about benefits cost management. In the face of double-digit cost increases that have persisted over the last decade—fuelled by such factors as increased utilization, government offloading, the introduction of new, more costly medicines, changing demographics, etc.—the cost management imperative on the […]