An article on why Canadian workers say job flexibility is key to satisfaction was the most-read story on BenefitsCanada.com this past week. Here are the top five human resources, benefits, pension and investment stories of the last week: 1. 70% of Canadian workers say flexibility key to job satisfaction: survey 2. Only a quarter of Canadian employees […]
Canadian pension plans are facing unforeseen taxation of dividends in European Union countries like Germany and the Netherlands, said the Pension Investment Association of Canada. In an open letter, the PIAC said its members have endured a discriminatory dividend taxation relative to settled European tax law and the free movement of capital within the EU […]
In its newest guidance, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario is barring pension plan administrators from registering retroactive adverse amendments that could have a negative impact on plan members or beneficiaries, such as changes in contribution rates, subject to limited exceptions. “What we found coming out of the [coronavirus] pandemic, . . . there was […]
Just 35 per cent of Canadians aged 50 and older report they’re in a position to financially afford to retire, while a slightly larger percentage (37 per cent) say they aren’t and 25 per cent say it’s unclear, according to a new survey by the National Institute on Ageing and the Environics Institute for Survey Research. […]
As a fresh-faced elementary school student in 1977, Aaron Bennett wasn’t quite in the target demographic for the freshly launched Benefits Canada magazine. Still, Bennett — now the chief investment officer at Ontario’s University Pension Plan — has a pretty firm grasp on the concerns that would have occupied the minds of his predecessors as […]
In an open letter, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak are calling on the U.K.’s institutional investors to follow the lead of Canadian and Australian pension funds by making more long-term, illiquid investments. “Currently global investors, including pension funds from Canada and Australia, are benefitting from the opportunities that U.K. […]
With the majority of PCL Construction Ltd.’s workforce continuing to work at its Canada-wide job sites and offices throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the organization’s decisions around its health benefits and pension plan have been to keep rolling. Speaking during a Q&A session to close out Benefits Canada‘s 2021 Benefits & Pension Summit on May 19, […]
The OPSEU Pension Trust ended 2020 with an 8.9 per cent net investment return and maintained its fully funded status. That was down from 2019 when it ended the year with an 11.2 per cent net investment return and maintaining its fully funded status. The plan’s assets grew to more than $23 billion, up from almost […]
Much has been written about how 2020 was unprecedented, challenging and exhausting — take your pick of adjectives. It was also a white-knuckle ride for many Canadian defined benefit plan sponsors as they watched the funded status of their pension plans plummet sharply and then rebound. Most plans’ funded statuses are now at, or even […]
Institutional investors have been rushing into the arms of alternative, less liquid, investments over the past two decades. But there is considerable variation in how major players approach these investments, according to a paper by Kristy Jansen a PhD-student at Tilburg University and Patrick Tuijp, a research affiliate at the University of Amsterdam. In examining […]