The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario has issued new guidance on transferring commuted values and purchasing annuities when a pension plan’s transfer ratio has declined since the most recently filed valuation report by 10 per cent and is now below 0.9. If the defined benefit plan’s transfer ratio is less than 1.0 the plan […]
The Winnipeg Public Service is recommending the reversal of amendments to the City of Winnipeg’s police pension bylaw. The amendments, which took effect April 1, 2020, were the subject of a grievance filed by the Winnipeg Police Association and the Winnipeg Police Senior Officer’s Association in November 2019 after the City of Winnipeg attempted to make alterations […]
The funded status of the Segal Group Inc.’s model multi-employer pension plan fell from 95 per cent to 86 per cent during the first quarter of 2020, according to a new report by the firm. The model’s portfolio is comprised of 55 per cent equities and 45 per cent bonds. Overall, its investments saw dismal […]
While the coronavirus pandemic certainly doesn’t change pension plan sponsors’ fundamental fiduciary duty to their plan members, the crisis is creating circumstances that will test how that responsibility manifests. Fiduciary duty arises when one party has a certain vulnerability in respect to another party, said Kenneth Burns, partner at Lawson Lundell LLP, in a webinar roundtable hosted by the […]
To say things have changed since I wrote my last editorial is a massive understatement. Of course, the early rumblings of the coronavirus pandemic were already underway in the early weeks of 2020, but they were still very far removed from Canada’s reality. At the time of writing these words in mid-April, worldwide coronavirus cases […]
While many Canadians can’t wait to start drawing down Canada Pension Plan benefits when they turn 65, it’s important to consider whether that’s the right move Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, director of financial security research at Ryerson University’s National Institute on Ageing Delaying CPP is the safest, most inexpensive approach to receiving more secure retirement income. Yet […]
The United Way Greater Toronto introduced a defined benefit pension plan in 1965 and moved to a hybrid plan in 1990. While the DB side was fully paid by the employer, the defined contribution component allowed employees to contribute up to four per cent of their annual salary with a 50 per cent employer match. […]
In 2009, when Vincent Morin walked through the doors of Air Canada as the vice-president of asset allocation and strategy for its investment division, he faced a tough situation. The company’s eight defined benefit pension plans, which buy units of a single master trust fund, were facing a $2.6 billion deficit. In the following years, […]
Canadian pension rules and regulations are in need of reform in order to properly address the reality of the 21st century workplace pension landscape, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. The report, authored by Bob Baldwin, a pension industry veteran and chair of the C.D. Howe’s pension policy council, argued that the […]
The Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan has added two more employers to its DBplus offering. Skills Canada Ontario and Fraser Group are the latest organizations to join the pension, bringing the number of employers in the plan to 33 since its launch 18 months ago. Employers joining DBplus can select a fixed contribution […]