Home Keith Ambachtsheer

Letter to pension plans: Why your fund should be free of tobacco investments

Would you invest in companies whose product kills seven million people every year, costs society $2 trillion annually in medical expenses, uses child labour in the production of its product, is blacklisted as an investment by governments that are signatories to an international tobacco treaty and whose future profitability faces material legislative, regulatory, and litigation […]

  • October 11, 2017 January 20, 2021
  • 20:05

Why Your Fund Should Be Tobacco-Free

What's your exposure to tobacco stocks?

  • October 10, 2017 September 13, 2019
  • 09:52

5 Myths About the CPP

The real challenges of CPP expansion have yet to be addressed.

  • July 6, 2016 September 13, 2019
  • 18:34

Yes, public pensions are cheaper

The debate about the merits of the proposed Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) and a mandatory CPP expansion versus private pensions continues. But proposal opponents have failed to take into account key data about the costs of the public and private models. If you do the math, it turns out the public pension model has an advantage.

  • October 29, 2015 September 13, 2019
  • 07:00

Time Capsule – 1982: Put 25% into real estate

Pension fund sponsors currently have a golden opportunity to take an unhurried, penetrating look at real estate investment: to determine whether to make the investment at all, and if so, to set the size of the investment and choose the type of real estate vehicle.

  • April 17, 2012 September 13, 2019
  • 11:45

Pension Revolution: A Solution to the Pension Crisis

Pension Revolution: A Solution to the Pensions Crisis Just as there is a consensus that workplace pension systems around the world are sick, so are there strong views on what the cure is. Many commentators continue to say the answer is to reverse the decline in the use of defined benefit(DB)plans. DB plan enthusiasts point […]

  • April 1, 2007 September 13, 2019
  • 00:00

Taking the D out of DB

© Copyright 2006 Rogers Publishing Ltd. The following article first appeared in the September 2005 edition of BENEFITS CANADA magazine. Taking the D out of DB   When their DB system went south, the Dutch regulator PVK took action.   By Keith Ambachtsheer Falling stock prices and interest rates, combined with an aging population, have led […]

  • September 1, 2005 September 13, 2019
  • 00:00

Pension Planning: Mission impossible?

There is a lot of hand-wringing going on in Canada about the generally poor financial condition of corporate, public sector, and industry-wide defined benefit (DB)pension plans. Plan members, employers and regulators are worried too. Interestingly, despite all this concern, there is no consensus or how to fix the problem. Some say tighter funding rules are […]

  • July 1, 2005 September 13, 2019
  • 00:00

Pension Planning: Mission Accomplished

By restricting the free flow of Canadian pension savings for over three decades, the Foreign Property Rule(FPR)directly cost Canadians billions of dollars in foregone returns in their pension and RRSP funds. For example, in a 1995 critique of the FPR, I placed the 1985-1994 cost at $20 billion for Canadian pension funds alone. As is […]

  • April 1, 2005 September 13, 2019
  • 00:00

Pension Planning: What are your beliefs?

PENSION FIDUCIARIES DON’T TALK MUCH ABOUT THEIR investment beliefs. So one is often left having to infer investment beliefs from investment actions. For example, if fiduciaries maintain or raise their target weights to equities during an extended bull market, what does that imply about their investment beliefs? Or, if active managers choose to stay close […]

  • January 1, 2005 September 13, 2019
  • 00:00