Investors seeking regular income are limited because traditional sources aren’t producing the results they used, says Dave Makarchuk, partner and Western Canada wealth business leader at Mercer, noting bond yields are really low and coupons are low. “And so dividends can be an attractive option for those who are seeking regular cash flow,” he says. […]
Rewind to August 2015. The Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Pension Plan was underfunded on both a solvency and going-concern basis, at 43.7 per cent and 65 per cent, respectively. Fast forward to year-end 2018 and it sits at a healthy 101.7 per cent on a going-concern basis. The turnaround stems from substantial changes to governance, […]
Since Telus Communication Inc.’s journey from defined benefit pension plans to defined contribution began in 1996, it’s come a long way, but it’s far from over. During a session at the Association of Canadian Pension Management’s annual conference on Wednesday, Carol Craig, Telus’s director of benefits and pensions, and Dave Lawson, vice-president of investment management, noted the DC […]
Private equity funds’ use of subscription lines of credit has been debated by both researchers and practitioners, specifically because of this form of financing’s impact on internal rates of return. This is because the internal rate of return is a time-sensitive return measure, so if a firm delays its capital calls, it shortens the effective […]
It turns out institutional investors can learn a lot about hedge funds by paying attention to their writing style. In fact, when looking at hedge funds’ strategy descriptions, the sophistication of the text can be telling, according to a new research paper. “It seems that even for sophisticated entities such as hedge funds — that […]
When interest rates are low, how does this influence U.S. public pension plans’ propensity to take risk? In a working paper looking at the period between 2002 and 2016, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found, on average, pension funds take more risk when both risk-free rates and funding ratios are lower. Specifically, the paper’s […]
When Gary Timlick joined the Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Co. as its senior vice-president, chief financial officer and pension committee chair, it had no formal investment department. With responsibility for managing corporate investments and pension assets resting solely on Timlick, he began a journey to build up an investment team. Though it was a relatively new […]
While many glide paths are based on age, is there a case for adjusting these based on account balance fluctuations or on a plan member’s risk aversion? When it comes to optimal outcomes for members, considering risk aversion may be the most important factor, according to a new paper out of the Australian National University […]
Deeper relationships in the venture capital space actually lead to fewer future co-investments, according to a new working paper out of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the University of Oxford. “A lot of people talk about the importance of investors having strong networks, and we thought that this notion of networks is a little […]
While many financial institutions are issuing green bonds, Sun Life Financial is the first insurance company globally to issue a sustainability bond, which will cover investments in both green assets and other assets serving a broader social purpose. Last week, Sun Life announced it’s issuing a $750 million principal amount of Series 2019-1 subordinated unsecured […]