Most (80 per cent) Canadians said they’d rather have an improved pension, or any pension, than a higher salary, according to new research by the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan. The survey of 2,500 Canadians found more (75 per cent) respondents are worried about being able to save enough for retirement than are primarily concerned over […]
General Electric Co. is freezing its U.S. defined benefit pension plan for about 20,000 employees with salaried benefits, reducing its pension deficit by between US$5 million and US$8 million. The affected employees will cease accruing additional benefits or make employee contributions after Jan. 1, 2021, but benefits accrued until Dec. 31, 2020 will be unaffected. As of the […]
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority is giving late-filing pension plans a “one-time” opportunity to avoid administrative monetary penalties. The “safe harbour,” which applies to any outstanding filings under the Pension Benefits Act, expires on Oct. 31. “Rather than have people concerned about flagging non-compliance with late filings, the FSRA has offered this amnesty of sorts,” […]
Across Canada, innovative pension plan design options are continuing to emerge for employers considering a move away from traditional single employer, in-house defined benefit or defined contribution plans. During an event last week at Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP’s office in Toronto, four pension industry professionals shared their experiences developing new plan design options. Speaking […]
Two more organizations are joining the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan’s DBplus. The University of Saskatchewan and Federated Colleges Non-Academic Pension Plan, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1975, has joined the plan as part of its latest collective agreement. Effective Sept. 1, 2019, 1,300 plan members will join the […]
The funded ratio of public pension plans in the U.S. has edged up slightly to 73 per cent in fiscal year 2018, but has been largely flat for several years and is below its 2001 peak, according to a new analysis. The research, from the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the Boston College Center for […]
The solvency positions of Canadian defined benefit pension plans declined slightly in the third quarter of 2019, according to new surveys from Aon and Mercer. Aon’s latest median solvency ratio survey reported a drop to 98.6 per cent from 99.3 per cent in the second quarter, while Mercer’s pension health index recorded 94 per cent […]
As membership in traditional defined benefit pension plans continues to decline, it’s becoming more common to see “contingent” plans — including target-benefit, shared-risk, multi-employer and jointly sponsored — which require members to take on at least some of the risk that benefits may or may not meet expectations. At the same time, the term “sustainability” is […]
While the Pension Investment Association of Canada is generally supportive of British Columbia’s proposed solvency funding framework, when it comes to requirements around funding the provision for adverse deviations, the organization is suggesting B.C. takes a page from Ontario and Quebec. With many governments across Canada looking to make defined benefit plans more sustainable, the […]
The New Brunswick Public Service Pension Plan saw a return of 1.75 per cent in 2018, yielding $132.3 million in additional net investment income, according to its annual report. The increase was led by private equity, which returned 26.91 per cent during the year. Other alternative investments, such as infrastructure and real estate, were also […]