Sometimes the easiest questions to ask are the most difficult ones to answer. Here’s the easy question to ask: where do we begin the next stage of the debate about pension reform? The question is important because if we start in the wrong place, and ask the wrong questions, we will inevitably get the wrong answers.
In January, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its long-awaited decision concerning a partial windup application made by non-unionized employees affected by a reorganization at Hydro One. The Court’s decision is important in terms of the role it defines for the Financial Services Tribunal (FST), its approach to partial windups and its approach to plan […]
In Elaine Nolan et al. v. Kerry (Canada) Inc. et al., the Supreme Court of Canada reviewed several issues—most significantly, the level of deference to be afforded to decisions of the Financial Services Tribunal (FST) in Ontario, the law applicable to the charging of expenses to a defined benefit (DB) pension plan and the law […]
How to address pension plan funding and insolvent plan sponsors in a time of crisis. The financial results of 2008 are hitting pension fund balance sheets, and they aren’t pretty. The most serious challenges arise when the plan sponsor is insolvent, but there are other difficulties that the pension industry can learn from. Most […]
With many defined benefit pension plans facing a funding crisis, how do we address the problem of solvency? For the second time this decade, pension funding rules are broken. What was seen as a temporary problem in the perfect storm during the early part of the decade has now recurred with a vengeance. This time, […]
The world is watching to see how pension funds manage risk in a challenging and changing market environment. Pension funds, especially defined benefit (DB) arrangements, are unlike most other investors. They have a specific objective: the provision of a promised retirement benefit. And they are prudent investors, legally mandated to deal with other people’s money […]
How the lack of financial market regulations failed asset-backed commercial paper. As the credit crisis continues to unfold, the international debate over the regulation of financial markets continues to escalate. Is such regulation appropriate or do financial markets operate on a “buyer beware” basis? The meltdown of the Canadian non-bank asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) market […]
Initiatives such as the Carbon Disclosure Project highlight the growing concern about greenhouse gas emissions. Companies and pension fund investors should keep a close eye on this issue in preparation for future regulatory changes. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an independent non-profit organization with a worldwide membership representing $41 trillion in assets under management, has […]
The ABCP fallout is still a burning issue in Canada, and pension fund managers and administrators are in the hot seat to explain what went wrong. Our own asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) crisis continues to unfold in Canada, with pension funds apparently holding some of the non-bank paper that is currently frozen as attempts are […]
Institutional investors must act as prudent investors. But that doesn’t exclude them from addressing environmental and social issues. Over the last decades, there have been two broad schools of thought about the use of environmental, social and governance(ESG) criteria in investment decision making. One view has regarded these criteria as having little to do with […]