An amendment to Manitoba’s Beneficiary Designation Act allows a pension plan member’s legal representative to now make a beneficiary designation on behalf of the member if they can’t make the designation themselves. However, the representative can only designate a beneficiary if the plan renews, replaces or converts a plan made by the participant and the same […]
Franklin Templeton is entering into a definitive agreement to acquire Putnam Investments from Great-West Lifeco Inc. for about US$925 million. As part of the agreement, Great-West will become a long-term strategic shareholder in Franklin Resources Inc. — Franklin Templeton’s parent company — with a 6.2 per cent stake. In addition, Great-West will will provide an initial long-term […]
While individual pension plans have been around since 1991, they aren’t being widely used by the people they’re designed to help and remain poorly understood by the traditional pension sector, says Jean-Pierre Laporte, chief executive officer of Integris Pension Management Corp. “There’s no published statistics, but the last number I heard from a [Canada Revenue […]
The largest administrator of private defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans in the U.K. is revealing details about a cyber attack that compromised the personal information of 470,000 of its members. In a press release, the £82.2-billion Universities Superannuation Scheme said its members’ data was held by external servers that were infiltrated by cyber […]
Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador have officially ratified an agreement on multi-jurisdictional pension plans, which will come into effect on July 1. In March, the two provinces announced their intention to sign the agreement, which had previously been adopted by every other province except Prince Edward Island. The agreement’s adoption was contingent on an amended […]
In 2022, the typical defined benefit pension plan achieved an investment return of roughly negative 12 per cent. However, due to dramatic increases in bond yields and a subsequent decrease in pension liabilities, many pension plans ended 2022 with the same — or better — solvency funded level that they had at the beginning of […]
There’s never a drought of challenges for employers and 2023 is proving no different. Today, they’re facing inflation, labour shortages, competition for hiring, high turnover and employee burnout, to name just a few. That’s why it’s no surprise the ball is firmly in employees’ courts. Alongside the interminable rise in the cost of living and […]
At the 2023 Defined Contribution Plan Summit, which was hosted in Montebello, Que. on Feb. 21-23, delegates learned from employer case studies and expert thought leadership about innovative pension plan design, financial wellness programs, decumulation solutions and investment opportunities to support their DC plan members. Indeed, alongside high inflation and interest rates, members are facing […]
Speaking during the keynote session at Benefits Canada‘s 2023 Defined Contribution Plan Summit, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, New York Times’ bestselling author and former Google data scientist, told the story of a horse called American Pharoah, who became the first in 37 years to win the Triple Crown. Prior to the big wins, the horse wasn’t anything […]
With group retirement plans aimed at helping members avoid risks and achieve their savings goals, defined contribution plan sponsors are uniquely positioned to step up and take a more active role in managing risk, said Christine van Staden, regional vice-president of group customer and national accounts business development at Canada Life, during Benefits Canada‘s 2023 […]