When it comes to DC investment issues, plan sponsors need to think about their members first. That was the message Marcus Turner of Towers Watson stressed yesterday at the ACPM’s Ontario Regional Council spring session—The New Normal for Investments and Other Updates—in Toronto.
In 2009, in partnership with Sun Life Financial Canada, the US$14.4-billion manufacturer of automotive safety systems began offering online health risk assessments (HRAs) and biometric screenings north of the 49th to its roughly 500 salaried and non-union hourly employees at the Midland, St. Catharines, Tillsonburg, Windsor and Woodstock, Ont., plants.
In August 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Pension Protection Act (PPA) into law. For Douglas Fisher, senior vice-president of benefit policy development and thought leadership, workplace investing, with Fidelity Investments, it was a proud moment.
What does the “new world order” mean for individual investors? Colin Ripsman, vice-president with Phillips, Hager & North, delved into that question at the firm’s trustee education seminar last week in Toronto.
Historically, equities have offered long-term returns, compared with other assets. This is known as the equity risk premium. The problem for investors nowadays is that equity returns are volatile.
According to a 2011 Greenwich Associates survey of Canadian institutional investors, the most important issue investors face is market volatility (47%), followed by rate of return and funding issues (34%).
How can institutional investors make sense of the structural shifts in the global economy? Eric Lascelles, RBC Global Asset Management’s chief economist, gave pension plan trustees an overview of the shifts—both short and long term—at the Phillips, Hager & North Trustee Education Seminar 2012 last week at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.
Pension standards legislation in Canada allows an employer to act as the administrator of its single employer pension plan. However, as a plan administrator, an employer must remember two points: do no harm and take no advantage, says Randy Bauslaugh, a partner in the Pensions, Benefits & Executive Compensation Group with McCarthy Tétrault, LLP.
First and foremost, custodians keep an investor’s assets safe and secure. But as pension plans continue to invest in more sophisticated assets—private equity, derivatives and hedge funds—custodians are no longer simply dealing with traditional stocks and bonds.
Blair Richards’ ability to build consensus and lead strong teams has been a driving factor behind the success of the Halifax Port ILA/HEA Pension Plan.