New data released today by Statistics Canada indicate that the market value of employer-sponsored pension funds totalled $1.1 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2012. This is up 4.1% from the previous quarter and is the largest gain since the fourth quarter of 2010.
In 2011, pension fund assets increased 4.6%, compared with 14.2% in 2010 and 10.5% in 2009.
Asset allocation
Pension fund investments in stocks rose 9.0% to $369.1 billion. The gain reflects a 14.7% increase in the value of foreign stocks and a 3.2% gain in Canadian stocks.
Foreign investments accounted for 31.9% of total pension fund assets in the first quarter, up from 29.8% in the previous quarter.
Investments in bonds edged down 0.3% to $423.6 billion. The share of pension fund assets in bonds fell from 38.8% in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 37.2% in the first quarter of 2012, while the share in stocks increased from 30.9% to 32.4% over the same time period.
Revenue and expenditures
Pension fund revenues increased 26.7% to $37.0 billion in the first quarter, the result of significant gains from the sale of securities. Expenditures fell 18.1% to $14.4 billion, mainly as a result of lower losses from the sale of securities.
As a result, net income nearly doubled from $11.6 billion to $22.6 billion in the first quarter, the highest net income since the fourth quarter of 2010.
Just over six million Canadian workers are members of employer-sponsored pension plans. Of this group, five million workers are members of trusteed plans. The remaining one million members with employer pensions are in plans managed principally by insurance company contracts. This data refers only to trusteed plans and their pension funds.