Despite several bumps in the decade since the 2008/09 financial crisis, the swift and brutal crash in global equity prices when the coronavirus was declared a pandemic sent pension investors reaching for their playbooks to implement defensive strategies to mitigate the damage. “People have worked very hard at just acting on the set strategies that […]
Despite several bumps in the decade since the 2008/09 financial crisis, the swift and brutal crash in global equity prices when the coronavirus was declared a pandemic sent pension investors reaching for their playbooks to implement defensive strategies to mitigate the damage. “People have worked very hard at just acting on the set strategies that […]
In this pandemic year, with workers suddenly physically distant and deeply stressed, employers have been forced to make swift changes to how they manage employee engagement and communications. For Nikki Booth, communications manager at the Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan, the first order of business was to help staff sift through the onslaught of information […]
The traditional worry about the rise of passive investment is that it will result in less informed asset pricing in the market overall. A new paper digs into how this rise of passive or quantitative investing impacts the efficiency with which firms are run. Less active management means fewer investors are seeking out mispriced securities […]
How do the European Central Bank’s monetary-policy decisions influence corporate debt levels in the U.S.? The ECB’s purchasing of investment-grade, corporate, Euro-denominated bonds seemingly crowded Eurozone institutional investors out of such instruments and Eurozone investors increased their allocations to U.S. dollar corporate bonds soon after, according to a new paper by Kerry Siani, a PhD […]
Can factor investing continue to give investors an edge if everyone’s doing it? Interest in using factors to invest has been on an upward trend and is still rising, says Alberto Martin-Utrera, an assistant professor of finance at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. “The assets under management have grown exponentially in the last decade, […]
While medical cannabis coverage is appearing in more benefits plans, most insurers that cover it still have very specific conditions. Sun Life Canada covers the most conditions, at seven, after adding two ailments to its roster in 2019. Marie-Chantal Côté, the insurer’s vice-president of market development for group benefits, says evidence is emerging that shows […]
At IBM Canada Ltd, if an employee joins a meeting, but doesn’t turn on their camera, the solution is simple: don’t worry about it. This is one attitude the company has formalized during the coronavirus pandemic to safeguard the mental well-being of its staff, says Katherine Faichnie, the technology company’s director of human resources. From a technology perspective, […]
With employers and employees still suffering through the limbo of the coronavirus pandemic, Wednesday’s throne speech clarified how the federal government plans to continue to support Canadians. In her speech, Governor General Julie Payette said the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy will be extended into 2021. She also said the government intends to shift away from emergency benefits […]
The traditional worry about the rise of passive investments is that the trend makes for less informed pricing of assets in the market overall. Less active management means fewer investors are seeking out mispriced securities and bringing them better in line with reality. This can cause negative real-world effects, the most simplistic of which is […]