What’s the payback from investing in employee well-being? “Profit and employee happiness aren’t mutually exclusive. Our research says that one can drive the other,” Jen Wetherow, senior director of Great Place to Work, told Benefits Canada’s Calgary Benefits Summit on May 5. There’s a strong correlation between trust, healthy working relationships and long-term stock performance, […]
While many Canadian drug benefits plans have adopted generic substitution policies, plans sponsors continue to face significant cost pressures. “Keeping these plans affordable and sustainable is very important,” Barbara Martinez, national practice leader for drug benefits solutions at Great-West Life Assurance Co., told Benefits Canada’s Calgary Benefits Summit on May 5. How can plan sponsors […]
With disability claims rising, many plan sponsors are questioning whether they’ll be able to offer their employees a complete group benefits plan in the coming years. “From a cost perspective, we’re seeing organizations asking about this more and more,” Travis Kelly, director of group disability claims and operational support at Desjardins Insurance, told Benefits Canada’s […]
With high costs for dental services, Alberta is facing calls to rein in the fees. It was in 1997 that the Alberta Dental Association published its last fee guide, yet nearly two decades later, many of the fees — such as those for a typical recall exam — remain equal to or higher than the […]
The main deterrent for some employers is the increased costs that would result. Another reason is, employers prefer not to force enrollment on employees who don’t want to commit a set amount of their salary to a retirement plan.
To successfully transition a member to retirement from a DC plan requires four pillars: people, platform, product and price. Any transition should make people a priority.
On the road to retirement, members must overcome five major risks: market, timing, inflation, shortfall and longevity. Plan sponsors need to be aware of these risks, as well as how they’re connected and how to mitigate them. “You can’t mitigate all of them entirely, and you can’t mitigate them in isolation,” noted Zaheed Jiwani, senior […]
While most DC plan sponsors view retirement as the end of their relationship with their employees, some plan sponsors are taking an alternate approach by extending their DC retirement program to include a decumulation option.
There are two impediments to moving forward with decumulation. One is structural: plan sponsors are reluctant to take on additional fiduciary responsibility. In 2014, the U.S. allowed annuities as a qualified default investment alternative: when sponsors offer deferred annuities as a default investment option, they have safe harbour protection and can’t be sued. However, Canada doesn’t offer sponsors similar protection. We need to address sponsors’ concerns here. The second is behavioural: in DC, less than 5% of plan members annuitize their savings, in part or in whole.
A global multi-sector fixed income strategy can offer a wide range of opportunities beyond the domestic market, said Terry Moore, portfolio specialist, global multi-sector and fixed income solutions strategies, with T. Rowe Price, so it’s something more DC investors need to be aware of.