The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan is well-known for its liability-driven investing strategy, which helped it successfully weather the 2008 financial crisis. During the coronavirus fallout, in an era of historically low interest rates, the HOOPP is working on developing LDI 2.0. “We’re very focused on liabilities, but what you do when interest rates are […]
The Halifax Port ILA/HEA found a way to provide its defined contribution pension plan members with a defined benefit upon retirement — and it’s been doing so successfully for 35 years. As a private sector multi-employer plan, the pension has about 450 active members, 300 retirees and about $210 million in assets. The DB plan […]
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions is lifting the temporary freeze on portability transfers for private pension plans. The move reverses the OSFI’s response in March to market volatility caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which froze portability transfers and annuity purchases from defined benefit pension plans. The restrictions are no longer needed, it noted in a […]
In the wake of the pandemic-related market volatility that battered already challenged public sector defined benefit plans in the U.S., a recent paper by New York University’s Stern School of Business is arguing that Canadian-style reforms could help secure these plans for the long term. “The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new fissures in state and local […]
The Mohawk College Foundation is the latest employer to join the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan’s DBplus. Prior to the move, which took effect Aug. 1, 2020, foundation employees contributed to a group registered retirement savings plan. On an individual basis, they’re now eligible to transfer their group RRSP balances into DBplus. […]
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan posted a negative return of 0.4 per cent in the first half of 2020. “The pandemic has brought some specific challenges,” said Jo Taylor, the plan’s president and chief executive officer, on a conference call on Tuesday. “Global economic growth has come to a standstill, job losses have spiralled upwards, […]
The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System’s Sponsor Corp. board is changing from a co-chair to a chair and vice-chair system. After discussions on changes to the governance model that took place in 2019, the board voted unanimously to elect Frank Ramagnano and Barry Brown as its first chair and vice-chair, respectively, replacing its legacy arrangement, […]
Alberta’s Local Authorities Pension Plan is introducing a new secure section of its website where plan members can log in, access their personal account and learn about their pension. The features of Your Pension Profile include mobile-friendly access to pension information, self-serve options and useful tools to help plan for retirement or manage the plan. […]
The Public Sector Alliance of Canada is asking the federal government to change the way it reports the unfunded liabilities of public sector pension plans, arguing the current practice makes the cost of the plans appear more volatile. The federal government implemented a new discount rate methodology in 2017/18 for pre-2000 pension liabilities. It moved from using a 20-year […]
The value of assets held by Canadian trusteed pension funds fell 3.3 per cent to $2.02 trillion in the first quarter of 2020, according to new data from Statistics Canada. Despite the quarterly drop, the funds posted a year-over-year increase of 2.5 per cent. Statistics Canada’s update noted the overall decrease in the quarter was […]