With a mature system of defined contribution pension plans, Australia offers some lessons for how Canada’s industry may evolve. At Benefits Canada’s upcoming Benefits and Pension Summit, Kim Hughes, head of product and services at QSuper, one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, will share the plan’s experience in assisting members with financial well-being and retirement readiness. A […]
The Canadian Institute of Actuaries has responded to Ontario’s description of its proposed funding rules for defined benefit plans. While the provincial government’s document, published in December 2017, included details on how the provision for adverse deviations would work under proposed new going-concern rules, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries’ submission says more information is required on how these were established. “We encourage the Ministry […]
When Loblaw Companies Ltd. purchased annuities to reduce the risk in its defined benefit pension plans in January 2017, the $350-million, inflation-linked buyout kicked off a year of significant activity in the Canadian annuity market. Group annuity purchases had reached nearly $2.5 billion by the end of the third quarter of 2017, according to Willis […]
While 2017 was a relatively uneventful year in terms of legislative changes affecting pension plans, 2018 promises to be more significant, at least for many defined benefit plan sponsors in Ontario. The changes to the Ontario Pension Benefits Act scheduled to come into force during the coming year include: Funding and governance policies: Plan administrators will need to establish […]
Manitoba’s Liberal Party is concerned about a number of pension plan design changes put forth by the province’s Conservative government in a public review earlier this month. “We are extremely concerned about the direction the Pallister government is taking on pensions,” Dougald Lamont, the leader of the Manitoba Liberals, said in an email to Benefits Canada. The […]
Whether plan sponsors expect a bear or a bull market in 2018, if they’re in a position to de-risk their pension plan, they should do it now, according to two investment consultants who spoke at an event in Toronto on Thursday. “From our perspective, if you look at the world over the last six years, […]
Plan sponsors and administrators finally have guidance on Quebec’s supplemental pension plan legislation, two years after initial amendments on Jan. 1, 2016. The regulations, which came into force on Jan. 4, 2018, don’t differ significantly from the draft version circulated for consultation last summer. The key features address annuity purchases, funding policies and variable benefits. Read: New pension […]
The Canadian Institute of Actuaries has responded to Nova Scotia’s consultation on a new defined benefit pension funding framework, including how a target-benefit funding model could be linked to an enhanced going-concern funding model. The province’s consultation, which began in September 2017, put forward a number of options for a new framework, including: maintaining the current solvency funding standard […]
Almost all Canadian middle-class families will see more money coming off their paycheques by the time changes to the Canada Pension Plan take full effect, according to a new report by the Fraser Institute. The report, released today, includes both the portion of CPP contributions paid by the employer and the employee in its calculations and accounts for the full […]
The government is introducing automatic enrolment for the guaranteed income supplement benefit beginning this month. The automatic enrolment means that, each month, up to 17,000 Canadian seniors who turn 64 on or after Dec. 1, 2017, will be selected to be automatically enrolled for the GIS benefit without having to complete an application, according to the […]