The market value of assets held by Canadian trusteed pension plans hit $1.97 trillion in the first quarter of 2019, an increase of five per cent from the last quarter of 2018, according to new data from Statistics Canada. Year over year, the market value of assets rose 3.6 per cent. The total includes assets […]
The 2008 financial crisis is an event that defined benefit plan sponsors won’t soon forget. Roller-coaster markets exposed gaps in their investment strategies, while de-risking appeared on pension committee agendas as they assessed the damage and focused on the road to fully funded statuses. Back in 2008, few tools were available to de-risk pension plans. […]
Rewind to August 2015. The Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Pension Plan was underfunded on both a solvency and going-concern basis, at 43.7 per cent and 65 per cent, respectively. Fast forward to year-end 2018 and it sits at a healthy 101.7 per cent on a going-concern basis. The turnaround stems from substantial changes to governance, […]
Since Telus Communication Inc.’s journey from defined benefit pension plans to defined contribution began in 1996, it’s come a long way, but it’s far from over. During a session at the Association of Canadian Pension Management’s annual conference on Wednesday, Carol Craig, Telus’s director of benefits and pensions, and Dave Lawson, vice-president of investment management, noted the DC […]
The Oklahoma Law Enforcement Retirement System was the victim of a cybercrime, with computer hackers stealing $4.2 million in funds. The OLERS, a benefits and pension administrator for retired law enforcement officers living in the state, said in a statement i’s confident the stolen funds will be recovered. It also noted no pension benefits for members […]
In seeking to create its own police department, the City of Surrey, B.C. has worked out the pension portability problem for its future officers. A formalized agreement between the city’s municipal pension plan and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police plan will allow officers moving to a job at the city to fully transfer their RCMP pensions. As of Aug. 9, 2019, […]
Canadian insurers paid out $98 billion in benefits in 2018, an increase of seven per cent over 2017, according to the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association’s annual fact book. Similar to previous years, this was led by retirement benefits from annuities ($49 billion), health benefits for prescription drugs and extended health providers like dentists […]
The federal government is reforming the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act on Nov. 1, 2019 to enhance retirement security and protect pension plans. As it announced in its 2019 budget in March, the reforms are aimed at making the insolvency process fairer, more transparent and more accessible. Read: Budget 2019: […]
After increasing by 15.1 per cent in 2017, the assets under management of the world’s 300 largest pension funds fell by 0.4 per cent in 2018, according to data from Willis Towers Watson’s Thinking Ahead Institute. It found the 300 funds’ total assets under management was US$18 trillion for the year. “A tougher market environment […]
Canadian public companies are increasing the discount rates they use for their defined benefit pension plans, according to a new survey by Morneau Shepell Ltd. The survey of 90 Canadian public companies found the median discount rate — the interest rate the pension plan uses to determine the current value of its anticipated future benefits […]