U.S. 401(k) plans that feature automatic enrolment continue to yield higher plan member participation rates (86 per cent) than plans without auto-enrolment (37 per cent), according to a new report by T. Rowe Price Group Inc. The report, which analyzed the firm’s 2022 client data, found the adoption of auto-enrolment by 401(k) plan sponsors rose […]
More than half (58 per cent) of U.S. employees say they’re significantly worried about one or more aspects of their personal finances, including saving for retirement and building emergency savings, according to a new survey by John Hancock Financial. In addition, with the market declines across asset classes in 2022, 70 per cent of survey respondents […]
More than half (54 per cent) of employees without a workplace retirement savings plan — including 77 per cent of millennials — say they’d participate in an employer-sponsored plan if it offered emergency savings features, according to a new survey by Natixis Investment Managers. The survey, which polled more than 700 U.S. employees, also found nearly three-quarters […]
Nearly three-quarters (71 per cent) of Canadian employees feel their mental health has interfered with their ability to work in the past year, according to a new survey commissioned by Manulife Financial Corp. and conducted by Edelman DXI. The survey, which polled more than 1,500 Canadians, found four-fifths of employees said they’re worried about their […]
Alcoa Corp. is de-risking roughly $315 million (US$235 million) in Canadian defined benefit pension obligations and assets with an annuity transfer. The group annuity contracts will be executed by Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc., which will assume payments for roughly 500 participants in September, according to a press release. Read: Alcoa entering $1BN […]
Recent amendments to the Quebec Pension Plan to encourage people to work past age 65 offer more flexibility on contributions and retirement age, says Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, director of financial security research for the National Institute on Ageing at Toronto Metropolitan University. “If people are accumulating a pension, working longer could potentially increase their pension,” says MacDonald, who […]
The rules governing registered retirement income funds and similar retirement vehicles are stuck in the past and need revamping or removal, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. With the current rules, the purchasing power of minimum RRIF withdrawals could fall to half their initial value by the time a retiree reaches […]
The Saskatchewan Pension Plan is removing its annual contribution and transfer-in limits. Starting on April 13, 2023, as long as plan members have room in their registered retirement savings plans, they can contribute as much as they want to the SPP, within RRSP limits. In addition, if they have other unlocked investments they’d like to […]
Millennial workers who rent for their entire careers must save 50 per cent more than homeowners in order to have a sufficient monthly income in retirement, according to a new report by Mercer Canada. The report, which analyzed findings from Mercer’s database, found millennials who rent need to save eight-times their annual salaries to retire […]
What’s in a name? A pension by any other name would smell as sweet — or would it? I started writing this month’s Pension Feature as an exercise to sift through some of the terms used by the pension industry to describe the different types of plans, but also to answer the question: Does the […]