For defined contribution plan members who were intending to retire in the first half of 2020, the market crash caused by the coronavirus may have upended those plans. Markets reached a trough in March, followed by some recovery, but with little clarity on what investments will do next, it’s a challenging time for plan members […]
While Canadian pension plans hold a quiet confidence, it turns out they actually do outperform their international peers when it comes to asset performance and liability hedging, according to a research paper from McGill University and CEM Benchmarking. The paper found Canadian plans achieve this outperformance using a three-pillar model: managing assets in-house to reduce costs, redeploying […]
Nova Scotia Pension Services Corp. finished 2019 with almost $12 billion in assets under management and reported sharply diverging year-end results for the two pension plans it manages. The Nova Scotia Teachers’ Pension Plan, which ended its fiscal year on Dec. 31, 2019, had a 12.36 per cent net return, as reported in late April. The TPP […]
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 […]
New draft regulations from the federal government would allow registered pension plans to borrow money and extend the deadline to retroactively credit pensionable service under a defined benefit plan in a bid to help plan sponsors maintain their pensions through the coronavirus pandemic. As part of the government’s coronavirus economic response plan, the regulations would apply to employers […]
Nova Scotia’s Public Service Superannuation Plan reported a 98.5 per cent funded status as of Dec. 31, 2019 and said it will halt cost-of-living adjustments for retirees for the next five years. According to the plan’s 2020 funded health review, its funding policy prohibits indexing when the PSSP’s funded status is below 100 per cent. However, the Public Service Superannuation […]
Plan design changes are on the horizon for the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System’s primary pension plan. The OMERS Sponsors Corp. board has approved five plan changes. The first three changes are effective immediately and are tied to circumstances related to the coronavirus. The other two are part of the annual plan review, which were […]
As part of a new collective agreement ratified earlier this year, employees at Hamilton, Ont.-based Vopak Terminals have joined the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan’s DBPlus arrangement, effective June 1, 2020. With the change, these employees, who are members of Unifor, move from a defined contribution plan into a defined benefit plan. Since […]
Alberta’s Fair Deal panel is recommending that the provincial government withdraws from the Canada Pension Plan and creates its own, subject to a referendum. “The panel recommends vigorously exploring this option and conducting the due diligence needed to assure Albertans that benefits and risks are understood and can be positively managed,” wrote the panel. “Albertans will […]
As if preparing for retirement wasn’t already a steep challenge, along comes the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the global economy, throwing up even more obstacles for capital accumulation plan members to maneuver. This year’s annual CAP Member Survey, supported by Actuarial Solutions Inc. and Morneau Shepell Ltd., fielded its questions between March 30 […]