A report by Alberta's auditor general finds that while public sector pension plan boards have implemented risk management systems, there's no clear responsibility for coordinating and managing risk.
The Canadian Institute of Actuaries has issued the first-ever mortality tables and mortality improvement scales that are based on pensioner mortality experience in this country.
Quick word association game: Denmark. What’s the first thing that comes to mind? Pastries? LEGO? Beer? Now, add pensions to the list. Denmark apparently has the world’s best pension system.
A fact sheet from the Office of the Chief Actuary shows that the shift to DC from DB is continuing.
An increasing correlation between different equity markets, coupled with the forecast for lower returns, have DB pension plan sponsors seeking other ways to diversify their investment portfolio, according to Towers Watson.
Statistics Canada says membership in registered pension plans in Canada rose in 2011, but the pension coverage rate declined.
The sufficiency and sustainability of Canadian retirement plans will continue to be a hot topic for pension pundits in 2014, according to Towers Watson.
Before stopping a payment of pension benefits to a retiree or survivor, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions says plan administrators are expected to obtain sufficient evidence or a reasonable basis to conclude that the retiree or survivor is deceased.
While there is a strong commitment to DB plans in the public sector, a survey finds that many Canadian plan sponsors are looking at ways to make costs more manageable.
This past summer, the employer members of OMERS proposed cutting the basic pension formula from 2% of final average pay (on earnings over the year’s maximum pensionable earnings) down to 1.85%. This seems like a fairly modest reduction in percentage terms, but it would have been represented as one of the most significant events in many years within the pension industry. While OMERS ultimately dropped the idea, for now anyway, the idea may be far from dead.