More than a year after its implementation, Quebec’s shift to going-concern funding obligations for defined benefit pension plans has already led to some positive results for employers. “On average, in our experience, employers’ costs have been reduced by 40 per cent,” says Natasha Monkman, a pension and benefits lawyer at Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie […]
Ford Motors Company has adjusted its method of accounting for pension contributions and other post-retirement employee benefits, the company noted in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week. As of Dec. 31, 2015, the company uses the mark-to-market accounting method, in which pension and other post-retirement employee benefits’ re-measurement gains and […]
Barring a miraculous recovery in the next couple of weeks, 2014 will turn out to be a disappointing year for pension plan sponsors, says Mercer.
The solvency position of Canadian pension plans dipped in the third quarter of 2014, according to Mercer.
Lower long-term interest rates drove down the solvency of Canadian DB plans from July to September. It was the first decline in two years.
Thanks to continuously generous Canadian equity returns during the second quarter of 2014, the health of the country’s DB pension plans reached the highest median solvency ratio since September 2007.
The Government of Quebec has released a draft regulation concerning new relief measures for the funding of solvency deficiencies for private sector pension plans, according to a Towers Watson advisory.
The Government of Saskatchewan has amended the funding rules for most DB plans in the public sector.
Canadian pension plans have improved their solvency position in Q1 due to a strong performance in equities and a slight increase in long-term interest rates. The Mercer Pension Health Index was at 87% on March 31, up from 82% at the beginning of this year.
On Nov. 15, 2012, regulations under Ontario’s Pension Benefits Act (PBA) were filed regarding the use of letters of credit (LC) to cover a portion of an employer’s solvency payments into a DB pension plan. These new regulations modify previously announced changes to the PBA (effective Jan. 1, 2013) that had not yet come into force.