Moderators: Sharon Seifried, national vice-president for corporate accounts, group retirement solutions; and Fraser Wiswell, assistant vice-president for group retirement solutions, at Manulife Financial With the decline of retiree benefits, rising drug costs and government funding constraints, plan members may not appreciate what their health-care costs will be in retirement, said Wiswell. “Plan members without benefits […]
More employers should be considering offering group decumulation options to employees, the Association of Canadian Pension Management argues in a new report. While individual options such as annuities, life income funds and registered retirement income funds allow members to maximize their investment choice and enjoy a good amount of flexibility in retirement, they often come […]
A retirement plan can be an effective tool in helping employers attract and retain talent while managing an orderly transition in the workforce. Done properly, it provides obvious benefits to employees, but there are benefits for employers as well. According to data from Willis Towers Watson, the average employer-provided value in a defined contribution plan […]
We often hear that to ensure a reasonable chance of having a good retirement outcome from a defined contribution pension plan, plan members should aim for total contributions of 15 per cent of their income to their retirement savings accounts. But how many Canadians are putting anywhere near that much away? It doesn’t seem likely. […]
Saving enough for retirement is a major challenge for many employees, so when a company’s plan design allows its staff to accumulate 15 per cent of their earnings and they only have to contribute five per cent themselves, it’s no surprise that nearly everyone is eager to jump on board. BASF Canada Inc.’s defined contribution […]
In the course of a merger or acquisition, there are a number of balls to juggle, not the least of which are the changes to employees’ benefits packages. Last month, Benefits Canada looked at one of the more complicated scenarios: how to deal with defined benefit pension plans in the wake of a merger or […]
Each year, employees at Britain’s Barclays Bank make decisions about their benefits and pension plan during the enrolment period. To learn more about their plan, staff typically have an information booklet and financial tools, such as a pension calculator, at their disposal. But six years ago, Barclays decided to apply a game-based approach to its […]
As the registered retirement savings plan turns 60 this year and the annual contribution deadline looms ahead, two new pieces of research show a shift in the participation rates and employer provision of the savings vehicle. A new study by Statistics Canada shows fewer and fewer Canadians aged 25-54 used registered retirement savings plans between […]
Target-date funds continue to be the most common default investment option offered to members of workplace capital accumulation plans, according to new research by the Canadian Institutional Investment Network and Great-West Life Assurance Co. The 2016 CAP Benchmark Report found 50 per cent of defined contribution plan sponsors and 51 per cent of group registered […]
The gross income replacement level of a typical capital accumulation plan grew by one per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to a report by Eckler Ltd. The slight change was due to increases in interest and annuity rates during that period, according to the report, which also notes the impact of volatility […]