As bond yields drop, many Canadian pension plans are looking at new strategies to increase returns through alternative investments, according to a webinar hosted by the Portfolio Management Association of Canada on Tuesday. “We’re looking for uncorrelated scalable risk, with low or no correlation to major markets like equity or credit,” said Jane Segal, portfolio […]
Pension investments are a key component of ensuring secure benefits for plan members upon their retirement. To celebrate the plan sponsors and pension investors who work hard to ensure strong investment outcomes, the first-ever Pension Leadership Awards will recognize winners across several categories. The Defined Contribution Investment Innovation Award will go to a DC pension […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plans posted a median 3.13 per cent return for the third quarter of 2020, following a strong market rebound, according to a new report by BNY Mellon Asset Management Canada Ltd. The organization’s master trust universe, which is comprised of 86 Canadian corporate, public and university pension plans, found U.S. equities was the […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plans posted a median three per cent return in 2020’s third quarter, buoyed by positive performance in equity markets, according to the RBC Investor & Treasury Services plan universe. Year-to-date, the median return was 5.2 per cent for the period ending Sept. 30, 2020. “Canadian defined benefit pension plans remained in […]
The pension industry is at a turning point, with the asset value of defined contribution plans growing, while defined benefit plans are shrinking. “In a decade’s time, you will have a situation where DC will be almost $50 trillion in size, but DB will be $10 trillion in size and there will be big changes […]
With developed market bond yields sitting near zero, pension plan sponsors seeking better returns and increased portfolio efficiency may find what they’re looking for in global fixed income, said Gregor Dannacher, global corporate credit portfolio specialist for the fixed income division at T. Rowe Price. When speaking at the Canadian Investment Review’s Global Investment Conference […]
Canada’s defined benefit pension plans posted a 3.2 per cent return in 2020’s third quarter, a position augmented by strong global equity markets, according to Northern Trust Canada’s pension universe. “The global pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated the pace of change for many defined benefit pension plans over the course of recent months, namely in the […]
In January 2020, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries released final changes to the actuarial standards of practice for calculating commuted values, with the changes scheduled to come into effect on Dec. 1, 2020. The changes will affect the lump-sum amounts paid from many Canadian defined benefit pension plans in situations such as: the termination of employment of […]
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, many organizations were focused on getting through the short term, but defined benefit pension plan sponsors are starting to take another look at de-risking. As of the second quarter of 2020, the total market volume of group annuity purchases year-to-date was $0.5 billion, compared to $1.5 billion in the first […]
How do the European Central Bank’s monetary-policy decisions influence corporate debt levels in the U.S.? The ECB’s purchasing of investment-grade, corporate, Euro-denominated bonds seemingly crowded Eurozone institutional investors out of such instruments and Eurozone investors increased their allocations to U.S. dollar corporate bonds soon after, according to a new paper by Kerry Siani, a PhD […]