The estimated cost to transfer retiree pension risk to an insurer in a competitive bidding process increased from 100.2 per cent of a plan’s accounting liabilities to 100.5 per cent of those liabilities in August, according to Milliman Inc.’s latest pension buyout index. The index uses the FTSE above median AA curve and annuity purchase composite […]
More than a third (37 per cent) of U.S. employers that offer a non-qualified retirement plan say attraction and retention of key talent is their No. 1 reason for offering these plans, according to a new survey by WTW. The survey, which polled around 400 employers representing more than 7.5 million employees, found more than […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plans’ median solvency ratio increased in the second quarter of 2023, according to a new report by Mercer. The report, which looked at the performance of more than 500 Canadian DB plans in its database, found a rise from 116 per cent to 119 per cent during the quarter. Meanwhile, a similar report […]
Canadian annuity prices have an asymmetrical response to changing interest rates, making it more expensive to de-risk defined benefit pension plans shortly after rates rise, according to new research. “In Canada, annuity providers are prompt when it comes to raising prices when interest rates go down and slower when interest rates go up,” says Mark […]
The current economic maelstrom, with its high inflation and interest rates, has left many institutional investors operating in uncharted territory — though not Rashid Maqsood, vice-president of treasury at electrical products distributor Rexel North America Inc. His career began in the late 1970s — almost a decade before central banks began setting inflation targets. “It’s […]
After reaching a near 40-year high over the past year, headline inflation started to cool in the final months of 2022 following a series of aggressive interest rate hikes by the Bank of Canada. According to Statistics Canada, the consumer price index was up 6.3 per cent year over year in December, down from a […]
RSA U.K. Pension Trustees, a subsidiary of Intact Financial Corp., is de-risking roughly £6.5 billion in U.K. defined benefit pension liabilities with an annuity buy-in. The deal, which will be completed with Pension Insurance Corp., will transfer all remaining economic and demographic risks associated with the Royal Insurance Group Pension Scheme and the Sal Pension Scheme, […]
When Tye McAllister was in middle school, he received a life-changing gift from his father — The Wealthy Barber, a practical guide to financial planning by Canadian investor David Chilton. “Investing became a passion,” says McAllister, senior analyst of pension investments and treasury at ATCO Group of Companies. “I was always trying to pull together […]
The Canadian Institute of Actuaries is urging the federal government to reconsider its cessation of real return bond issuances, citing the potential financial impacts to defined benefit pension plans. “We request not only that the decision to cease issuing real return bonds be reconsidered, but also that the annual issuance of real return bonds be […]
The uncertainty about the direction interest rates will move in 2023 means defined benefit pension plan sponsors should be reconsidering their asset allocation strategies, says Ben Ukonga, principal at Mercer. “I don’t think anybody knows when, or if, interest rates will come down. If [inflation] comes down, the Bank of Canada’s likely to stop increasing […]