Last year was a tumultuous one, with economies ravaged by successive waves of coronavirus pandemic-related stresses and closures. Despite the negative impact these forces had on the economy, the stock market continued to rebound from the March 2020 correction and performed well. And in the face of higher volatility, U.S. stock exchanges were the highest […]
With many defined benefit pension plan solvency ratios at all-time highs, plan sponsors have an excellent opportunity to rethink their approach to investing, according to Shivin Kwatra, head of liability-driven investing portfolio management at Insight Investments. “It is important to highlight two approaches to investing: one [is] traditional — a mean variance framework of maximizing […]
The average Canadian defined benefit pension plan saw its funding position deteriorate slightly on both a solvency and accounting basis in November, according to a new report by LifeWorks Inc. According to the report, the index covering the estimated average DB plan saw its solvency ratio dip, from 111.5 per cent to 110.8 per cent. […]
The Alberta Investment Management Corp. saw returns of 1.7 per cent during the third quarter of 2021, according to its quarterly report. Between July and the end of September, the AIMCo saw the value of its assets rise from $123.4 billion to $130.1 billion, beating its benchmark of 0.9 per cent. On a year-to-date basis, the […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plans returned 4.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2021, according to RBC Investor & Treasury Services’ latest all-plan universe. The report found average Canadian DB pension plan returns grew by 0.9 percentage points over the previous quarter, from 3.5 per cent to 4.4 per cent. It also noted the […]
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. returned 16.5 per cent for its combined pension plan clients and increased its assets under management from $171.3 billion to 199.6 billion in the year ended March 31, 2021. In its annual report, the investment manager said the $28.3 billion increase of assets under management reflected investment gains of […]
BBB-rated corporate bonds are becoming a bigger part of the Canadian market, according to an analysis by FTSE Russell. In particular, at the end of January 2020, the FTSE Canada one- to 10-year corporate BBB bond index had 326 issuers, representing $141.1 million in market cap, which translates to 29 per cent of the FTSE […]