Our 2013 Group Benefits Provides Report covered many topics, but we weren’t able to get to all of them in the magazine. Below are the answers to two questions that weren’t covered. Q. Are you seeing more interest in flex plans and healthcare spending accounts? Brad Fedorchuk, vice-president, group marketing, Great-West Life: We have not […]
Shifting demographics, the growing reality of expensive biologic drugs and the increasing prevalence of many chronic disease states in the workplace are all putting strain on employer-sponsored group benefits plans.
When Bill Kyle reflects on a career that has spanned more than 30 years, one thing that stands out is how the group insurance landscape has changed through consolidation.
Conventional finance theory says that humans are inherently rational beings who look to investing as a way to maximize their wealth and to ensure they can maintain a comfortable standard of living as they age. When it comes to money, so the theory goes, humans behave without emotion or bias.
OMERS—Canada’s second-largest pension plan, according to Benefits Canada’s 2012 Top 100 Pension Funds Report—today announced its 2012 financial results, highlighted by $5.7 billion in asset growth.
While 2012 saw strong investment returns for Canadian DB pension plans, solvency funding issues continued to be a challenge. With similar patterns expected to continue in 2013, plan design considerations and related legal developments will revolve around issues such as plan de-risking and solvency funding solutions.
In considering who in a corporation might be ideally positioned to champion the cause of workplace diversity, most people would think of a CEO or HR executive. Few would consider an in-house lawyer.
While Canada’s unemployment rate was down in December 2012 to its lowest point in four years, the country’s employment insurance (EI) program continues to fail those who need it, according to the head of one of Canada’s largest unions.
Slight boost not due to economic improvement, however.
The solvency position of Canadian pension plans improved slightly in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the Mercer Pension Health Index. But the improved position was due to plan sponsor intervention rather than economic improvement.