Saskatchewan’s Public Employees Benefits Agency is finalizing the modernization of its pension administration system. Earlier this month, the province’s Public Employees Pension Plan converted to the PEBA’s new platform which includes the new PLANet system, an online self-serve portal for employees and members of both the PEPP and the Municipal Employees Pension Plan. The MEPP […]
Plan sponsors in the U.S. that suspended or reduced employer-matching contributions are reinstating them or increasing their levels by 2021, said a new survey by Willis Towers Watson. According to the survey, 60 per cent of plan sponsors said they intend to match their members’ contributions at the same level as they were prior to their suspension or […]
The Pension Investment Association of Canada is commenting on a consultation from the Canadian Institute of Actuaries’ actuarial standards board, providing feedback on benefit security, stress testing and windup valuations. In a letter, the PIAC said the meaning and mandated disclosures of benefit security are public policy issues for lawmakers and regulators. “While the views of the [actuarial standards […]
Quebec has published new draft regulations aimed at helping the administrators of supplemental pension plans to navigate the coronavirus pandemic. The proposed regulations would allow plan members to maintain their active membership in a supplemental plan even if they’re experiencing a temporary suspension in accruing benefits, as long as that suspension began in 2020 and doesn’t last longer than […]
Mercer Canada is appointing Teresa Palandra as leader of its wealth business. Palandra will be in charge of investment, wealth management and retirement services and solutions for the Canadian market. She’s taking over from Jean-Philippe Provost as he moves on to lead the multinational plan sponsor client segment of the firm’s global business solutions team. A partner with […]
Pension plan members are buffeted from all sides by information on retirement options — some reliable, some not — especially now that the coronavirus pandemic is playing into the conversation. “People are scared,” said Peter Shena, executive vice-president and chief pension officer at the Ontario Pension Board, during a webinar hosted by Common Wealth last week. […]
In seeking to better serve its plan members, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has been on a journey to change its strategic thinking to access a more meaningful picture of who its members are and what challenges they have in using the plan as it stands. That journey starts by asking what a member is […]
Vestcor Investment Management Corp. returned 11.76 per cent in 2019, with total assets under management rising to $18.5 billion, according to its 2019 annual report. The organization, which manages the investment and administration for several of New Brunswick’s public sector pension plans, said the long-term annualized gross pension fund return since it began its business […]
While the coronavirus pandemic certainly doesn’t change pension plan sponsors’ fundamental fiduciary duty to their plan members, the crisis is creating circumstances that will test how that responsibility manifests. Fiduciary duty arises when one party has a certain vulnerability in respect to another party, said Kenneth Burns, partner at Lawson Lundell LLP, in a webinar roundtable hosted by the […]
The United Way Greater Toronto introduced a defined benefit pension plan in 1965 and moved to a hybrid plan in 1990. While the DB side was fully paid by the employer, the defined contribution component allowed employees to contribute up to four per cent of their annual salary with a 50 per cent employer match. […]