The California State Teachers’ Retirement System(CalSTRS)has issued a request for proposals seeking alternative investment portfolio advisors to recommend partnerships, perform due diligence and assist and advise its staff. The request for proposals aims at establishing one nondiscretionary alternative investment advisors in each of three global regions: the Americas – North and South America; Europe – […]
Canada’s soaring dollar again wreaked havoc on pension funds in the third quarter, according to a survey by RBC Dexia Investor Services. Canadian pensions lost 0.7% in the third quarter, trimming year-to-date results to 1.8%. Currency losses continued to eclipse global equity returns. Year-to-date, the MSCI World index climbed 8.0% in local currency terms, but […]
Keith Ambachtsheer told the Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions that it should look beyond trying to fix the defined benefit and defined contribution system at a public hearing this morning. “I know that the original intent of this commission was sort of a fix the potholes type of mandate,” the president of KPA Advisory Services […]
Most Canadian investment professionals, 71%, say that their total compensation increased from 2005 to 2006, according to a survey. The 2007 CFA Institute Member Compensation Survey finds that 27% of respondents’ compensation increased by 20% or more and 25% said the increase was between 10% and 20%. Twenty-one percent of respondents saw no change in […]
Financial Executives International Canada called for an immediate increase in the funding period of solvency deficits at yesterday’s Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions hearings. “Under the current windup solvency rules, financially strong companies would be forced to divert significant cash flows in the short term from their successful capital investments,” said Peter Donovan, chair of […]
Watson Wyatt will spin off its North America multi-employer retirement business to two new companies. The specific plans affected are Taft Hartley plans in the United States and private sector, negotiated costs, trusteed plans in Canada. The companies, Horizon Actuarial Services in the U.S. and PBI Actuarial Consultants in Canada, will be owned and operated […]
DBRS says some of the frozen asset-backed commercial paper(ABCP)in Canada is linked to U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities(RMBS). Approximately 77% of the transactions, calculated by funding amounts, within the affected trusts consist of collateralized debt obligations(CDOs), says the credit rating agency. The remaining 23% consist of “traditional” assets such as mortgages and auto receivables. “DBRS believes […]
The Pension Investment Association of Canada(PIAC)asked the Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions to address risk asymmetry in the rules regarding surplus entitlement along with seven other recommendations at public hearings in Toronto earlier today. It said that the pivotal Supreme Court of Canada ruling in the Monsanto case exacerbated the asymmetrical sharing of pension risk […]
The Canadian Auto Workers urged the Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions to take a much broader perspective on the pension system at public hearings today in Toronto. It asked the commission to recommend that the Ontario government actively pursue talks with the federal government and other provincial governments to seek expansion and improvements in current […]
Mary De Paoli has been appointed to the position of senior vice-president and chief marketing officer for Sun Life Financial’s global operations. She has been with the company since 1999 and has led the group retirement services division as senior vice-president since 2003. Concurrent with this announcement, Claude Accum will be the new senior vice-president […]