A key aspect to managing the increasing compensation costs of federal government employees is a transition away from defined benefit pension models, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. Target-benefit plans would provide more stable contribution rates by allowing more benefit flexibility, says the report, while another option would be jointly-sponsored pension plans, in […]
Bolstered by a lift in global equities, Canadian defined benefit pension plans maintained positive growth in the first quarter of 2017 with average returns of 2.9 per cent, according to RBC Investor and Treasury Services. Positive global economic conditions in the first quarter helped lift global equities to a return of 6.2 per cent for […]
The British Columbia Supreme Court has rejected an American multi-employer pension plan’s claim for $1.25 billion against a U.S. company’s Canadian subsidiary. The case revolved around the claim that a Canadian subsidiary was on the hook for the unfulfilled pension withdrawal liabilities of one of its parent company’s U.S. subsidiaries. The parent company, Walter Group, includes U.S., […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plan sponsors recorded an uptick in returns for the first quarter of 2017, primarily driven by strong equity markets, according to research by Northern Trust Canada. The research, which tracks the performance of Canadian institutional investment plans that use its performance measurement services, found the median plan gained three per cent, […]
The Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plan is reporting a return of eight per cent net of investment fees for 2016. The result was down slightly from 8.1 per cent for 2015. As of Dec. 31, 2016, it held $9.4 billion in assets, compared to $8.6 billion the previous year. In 2016, employers and […]
Girls are “made of sugar and spice and everything nice — and gunpowder and Cubans and bourbon, no ice.” So sang Columbia Business School students in a 2014 parody music video about gender representation in their industry. But while many women now do the same jobs as men, their employment patterns remain distinct and, as […]
When Canadian Investment Review held its inaugural Global Investment Conference 20 years ago, foreign investments were something of a niche for Canadian pension plans. With the foreign property rule, investors couldn’t hold more than 20 per cent of their assets in non-Canadian investments. But jump ahead to today, and many pension funds have already made […]
The Sherbrooke Restoration Commission, which operates a historic village in Nova Scotia, has transferred its defined benefit pension into the province’s public service superannuation plan. The transfer, which affected 22 plan members, took effect on May 1, 2017, and is the first transfer to take place pursuant to Nova Scotia’s Municipal and Other Authorities Pension Plan […]
While the going-concern funding levels of Ontario’s defined benefit pension plans have improved slightly, the solvency picture remains stagnant, according to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario. In its 2016 report on the funding of 1,333 defined benefit pension plans, the regulator found the median funded ratio on a going-concern basis had climbed slightly to […]
The Ontario government is moving to allow for variable benefits from defined contribution pension plans, according to the 2017 budget tabled yesterday. “I think it’s positive the Ontario government gets that [addressing] decumulation is a rising need for capital accumulation plans,” says Joe Nunes, president of Actuarial Solutions Inc. But he cautions that the proposed solution, […]