Why are nearly 50% of plan assets still invested in equity markets?
American plan sponsors have been spurred to action by a perfect storm of pressures on their DB plans, finds the Mercer/CFO Research 2015 Risk Survey.
The largest Canadian pension plans saw their combined liabilities increase to $179 billion from $154 billion and their overall financial health decline in 2014, a report finds.
De-risking is a term we’ve heard often in the last few years, as is liability-driven investing. But, in a sense, neither should be necessary, as all DB investing is at least “liability-aware.” So let’s assume a pension trustee is talking about de-risking in terms of matching assets to liabilities, focusing on substantially reducing the mismatch.
Pension risk management remains a principal concern for North American private plan sponsors and nearly one quarter of them are either considering transferring or are very likely to transfer pension risk in 2015, finds a survey.
While 2014 saw the average cost of buying out a DB plan remain largely stable, there's a growing trend to reduce the risks associated with pension liabilities, according to the Mercer Global Pension Buyout Index.
BCE has reached an agreement to transfer the longevity risk for $5 billion of pension plan liabilities to Sun Life Financial.
Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s recent announcement that it will purchase group annuity contracts for about 21,000 retirees representing US$2.5 billion in pension obligations is the latest indication that the trend to de-risk pension plans is continuing.
Many employers that sponsor DB pension plans are considering reducing the risk in their plans. An approach to reduce risk that is gaining popularity is to purchase a group annuity in respect of all or a portion of a pension plan’s retiree (and in some cases deferred vested) obligations.
Kimberly-Clark has reached an agreement to transfer the pension obligations of about 21,000 American retirees to two insurers.