The funding of a typical U.S. pension plan improved by 3.9 percentage points last month, according to Mellon Financial. “U.S. stock markets had an excellent month, sending pension plan asset values higher,” says Peter Austin, executive director of Mellon pension services. “At the same time, long-maturity interest rates increased 20 basis points in May, reducing […]
The Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the Divisional Court’s decision in Nolan v. Superintendent of Financial Services(otherwise known as Kerry)yesterday, says a brief from Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt. The Court of Appeal essentially restored the earlier, more employer-friendly decision of the Financial Services Tribunal in respect of pension plan expenses and contribution holidays. Highlights of […]
The battle for BCE has become more intense as a consortium including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Providence Equity Partners has entered privatization talks. Teachers’ is the telecom company’s largest shareholder. Yesterday , the plan announced it increased its stake in BCE to 6.3%. Providence has invested in a number of telecom and media […]
CIBC is facing a $600 million class action lawsuit, which alleges that the bank has not given employees the paid overtime they are owed. The action covers thousands of current and former non-management, non-unionized employees who are or were tellers or other front-line customer service employees working at retail branch offices across the country. It […]
An increasing number of defined contribution(DC)plans are getting a socially responsible investment(SRI)option in their defined contribution plans at work, according to new Mercer Investing Consulting data released by the Social Investment Forum. The survey finds that 19% of DC plans in the United States already include an SRI option and that 41% of all DC […]
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has increased its holdings in BCE. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the plan announced it has spent $316.6 million over the last couple weeks to buy 8.02 million shares. Teachers’ now owns 50.8 million shares of the telecom company, representing about 6.3% of the common stock […]
A committee of the Stanford Institutional Investors’ Forum at Stanford Law School, in cooperation with the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, announced new standards designed to improve fund governance and curb abuse of fund assets. The Clapman Report, a set of best practice principles for managing pension, endowment, and charitable funds, […]
Institutional investors are increasingly turning to alternative investment vehicles to diversify their portfolios and US$85 billion will be poured into hedge funds and fund of hedge funds through institutional commitments alone over the next 12 to 18 months, according to a report by Private Equity Intelligence(Prequin). Pension plans have been, and continue to be, the […]
Nonprofit firms could be hard hit by talent shortages exacerbated by the large cohort of baby boomers soon entering the retirement years, says a report by The Conference Board. “While growth in the nonprofit sector is outpacing growth in the rest of the economy, talent shortages are already affecting critical service sectors, including healthcare and […]
Sun Life has completed the acquisition of Genworth Financial’s U.S. employee benefits group. That follows approval by all required regulatory authorities in the United States and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions in Canada. Its U.S. group business, combined with Genworth’s group, becomes Sun Life Financial Employee Benefits Group, offering customers group life, […]