While the sustainability of defined benefit pension plans have long been a central talking point in the industry, they took a real hit during the 2008 financial crisis, a sting many plans feared would linger in public opinion. “DB plans were obviously affected. Actually, all retirement savings plans were impacted,” says Darryl Mabini, senior director of growth and […]
While mental health is often a sensitive area, the Co-operators Group Ltd. aimed to bring the issue into the open by introducing an online Yammer group as a safe place for employees to talk, share information and support one another. “It’s a way for us to have those organic conversations crop up from our staff,” said Stacey Kennedy, […]
By presenting pension information in simpler, bite-sized chunks and introducing a colourful character, the Alberta Local Authorities Pension Plan undertook a digital revamp that earned it the pension communications award at Benefits Canada’s 2017 Workplace Benefits Awards last week. Facing the challenge of engaging members on the difficult topic of pensions, the organization took on the task of […]
For plans sponsors that haven’t comprehensively reviewed their statements of investment policies and procedures in a while, it may be time to refresh the document to ensure it correctly reflects the details of the plan and is in line with current regulations. There’s an extra incentive to do so for plans registered in Ontario as recent regulatory changes […]
Members of the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa pension will be voting this fall on whether to join the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan. The organization, which has been in place since July 1972, is considering the merger as a way to mitigate the defined benefit plan’s impact on its operating budget, says […]
While defined contribution plans were a small piece of the pension market when Benefits Canada first rolled off the presses in 1977, the Co-operative Superannuation Society had already been operating for almost 40 years by that point. Founded in 1939 in Saskatoon, the society’s pension plan is one of the country’s oldest and largest defined […]
Back in the 1990s, senior management at the Co-operators Group Ltd. decided to be more generous with its defined contribution pension plan. While most Canadian companies with defined contribution offerings match employee contributions — often up to five per cent of salary — the Co-operators upped its plan on both sides of the equation by […]
The irony of pensions and benefits is that employees tend to ignore them until they need them or until their employer changes them. And whether it’s good news or bad news, there are almost always trade-offs. Changing pensions or benefits can be a tough sell to employees. When employers say “change,” employees often hear “change […]
A consultant’s role was historically a passive one, says Martin Leclair, who recently left a role at Toronto-based consulting firm Proteus Performance Management. The consultant’s role centred on the various aspects of developing pension and benefits plans for employers, from choosing fund offerings and implementing target-date options and automatic enrolment to decisions about formularies, step […]
The federal government’s difficulties with its problem-plagued Phoenix pay system are now affecting pension plan members who won’t be receiving their pension and insurance benefits statements this year due to potential inaccuracies with the information. And while much of the attention on Phoenix has focused on employees not getting paid on time, it has also been causing problems for […]