After the roller coaster ride of the past three years, pension plans are starting to ask questions about their methods for selecting and evaluating investment managers and how to allocate their management budgets, says Rob Boston, partner and leader of the asset consulting practice with Morneau Shepell. Boston, speaking at a seminar discussing the firm’s […]
Since bill 168 was introduced in June 2010, which amended the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act to strengthen protections for workers against workplace violence and harassment, there has been a marked increase in legal investigations into related complaints, explains Kevin Robinson, a lawyer with Bernardi Human Resources Law in Mississauga, Ont. Robinson, speaking about […]
Plan early for retirement. That’s the lesson most commonly cited by retiree respondents to Merrill Lynch’s Affluent Insights Quarterly Survey, which examines the values, financial priorities and concerns of affluent Americans. Asked what key advice they would pass on to younger generations, 78% of retirees said individuals should begin to plan for the life they […]
Speaking at the recent Foundation, Endowment & Not For Profit Investment Summit, Sheila Norman, a portfolio manager with CGOV Asset Management, and president of the GGOV Foundation, addressed the topic of managing risk. While Norman spoke specifically about endowment funds, many of the risks she outlined are the same faced by pension plan administrators: not […]
While the number of plan members covered by registered pension plans has increased over the past decade, the percentage of the labour force with coverage has decreased slightly, according to a new fact sheet released by the federal Office of the Chief Actuary. According to the fact sheet, Registered Pension Plan (RPP) and Retirement Savings […]
For Michel Lizée, independent member and pension committee secretary of the Régime de retraite à financement salarial des groupes communautaires et de femmes (RRFS-GCF) in Montreal, the journey toward establishing a pension solution for employees in Quebec’s social economy sector began in 2004 with a “bad joke” he made to a colleague. “I said, ‘You […]
NAV Canada has had a pension plan communications strategy in place since 2000. But a growing realization from the pension team that members were not as engaged in the plan as they could be was the catalyst for recent enhancements. “The pension benefits at NAV Canada are complex and were not well understood by employees. […]
In naming her the 2010 Most Influential Plan Sponsor, Josephine Marks’ peers may have sought to recognize her individual efforts. But if you ask Marks, any influence she has been able to wield in the industry can be directly attributed to her employer. Marks, managing director, pension assets, with Scotiabank in Toronto, joined the bank […]
Lessons learned during the financial crisis are influencing views on investment risk and defined benefit (DB) pension plans going forward. That was the message at a recent luncheon event in Toronto where Pyramis Global Advisors revealed some key results from its 2010 Defined Benefit Research Study. The 2010 survey polled chief investment officers, treasurers and […]
Jim Hall, director of research at Calgary-based Mawer Investment Management Ltd. and chair of the company’s board of directors, says his success as a fund manager can be summed up by a slogan that once ran on Mawer billboards in Calgary: Be boring. Make money. Hall, who took home the award for Morningstar Equity Fund […]