When Gary Timlick joined the Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Co. as its senior vice-president, chief financial officer and pension committee chair, it had no formal investment department. With responsibility for managing corporate investments and pension assets resting solely on Timlick, he began a journey to build up an investment team. Though it was a relatively new […]
The president and chief executive officer of the C.D. Howe Institute is once again urging the federal government to raise the contribution limits for savers in defined contribution pension plans and registered retirement savings plans. In a letter to Minister of Finance Bill Morneau, Bill Robson referred to a paper he wrote last year in […]
Two organizations representing Canadian pensioners are asking the British Columbia government to reject the recommendations of a recent report by the Ministry of Finance that suggests lowering required pension solvency funding from 100 per cent to 85 per cent. “We actually disagreed with the very objective of the report,” says Marissa Lennox, spokesperson for CARP, formerly the […]
Global market volatility drove Canadian defined benefit pension plans’ median returns lower in the second quarter of 2019, according to BNY Mellon Asset Management Canada Ltd. and RBC Investor and Treasury Services. Among the 84 Canadian corporate, public and university pension plans in BNY Mellon’s tracking service, the quarterly return was just 2.34 per cent, compared to […]
Morneau Shepell Inc. has closed the previously announced acquisition of Mercer’s stand-alone, large market health and defined benefit pension plan administration business in the U.S. “We are pleased to welcome the very talented employees joining us with this acquisition and our new clients that we look forward to supporting and bringing exceptional service to their […]
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is running to become the next presidential candidate for the U.S. Democratic Party, has proposed new legislation attacking the private equity industry and calling for major reforms. The Stop Wall Street Looting Act of 2019 proposes stringent rules around private equity transactions, including making private equity firms share responsible for the debts incurred by […]
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. posted a combined net return of 6.1 per cent for its fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2019. Adding $2 billion in value, the organization increased its assets under management to $153.4 billion and beat its combined market benchmark, which returned 4.5 per cent. Private assets drove the outperformance, with income generation and […]
Canadian defined benefit plans posted a median return of 2.5 per cent during the second quarter of 2019, according to data by Northern Trust Corp. The small gain marked the second consecutive quarter of positive growth, despite global growth concerns and worries over ongoing trade disputes contributing to equity volatility in developed markets. “In the midst of uncertainty surrounding […]
The Nova Scotia Public Service Superannuation Plan posted a 5.33 per cent return for the 2018/19 fiscal year, with $335 million in total investment income, according to its annual report. Net of investment management fees, the plan’s rate of return was 5.13 per cent. Measured both ways, the returns slightly underperformed the plan’s benchmark rate of […]
What effect do low interest rates really have on how pension funds invest and what are the long-term consequences? When plan sponsors are underfunded, they have a few set options, according to a new paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. For a state-sponsored plan, the choice of whether to take on assets with higher […]