Watch this video For Michelle Peshko, senior advisor for pensions investments with Xstrata, money markets only make up a small piece of a plan member’s…
In 2007, the Canadian division of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) underwent a significant change, revamping its business culture and employee benefits. It was an enormous task,…
The trend toward DC plans creates a host of new challenges: for plan sponsors, whose members look to them for investment information; for governments under…
The Institute for Research on Public Policy recently published a paper by economist Keith Horner entitled A New Pension Plan for Canadians: Assessing the Options,…
Which factors do you consider when educating your members on their DC plans? Take our poll! A DC pension plan is a wonderful thing: with…
Watch this video At Unisource Canada, the DC plan is made up of two parts: a basic component and an optional component, and it’s a…
My previous article, Finding the target (date fund), introduced target date funds (TDFs)—also known as lifecycle or age-based funds—and provided background for why they are…
Watch this video Since the announcement of pooled registered pension plans (PRPPs) by the Federal government, plan sponsors and industry experts have been supportive of…
The shift from DB to DC plans has done nothing to address Canada’s retirement funding crisis, aside from insulating plan sponsors from the risks of…
In December 2010, the Task Force on Financial Literacy produced its report, Canadians and Their Money: Building a brighter financial future. Not surprisingly, some of…
Large pension funds in Canada, in the U.S. and around the world have steadily increased their investment exposure to agriculture in recent years through farm…
In 2009, there were almost 58,000 oil patch jobs in Alberta. Analysts say if oil prices continue to rise, there would be about 102,000 jobs…
Target date funds (also known as lifecycle or age-based funds) have been available to Canadian capital accumulation plan (CAP) sponsors for about half a decade…
March to May is our big season to meet with clients and perform our annual comprehensive DC plan review (most of our clients also do…
U.S. employees in DC plans believe those plans will play a leading role in funding their retirement, and they also expect help with their plans…
The economic downturn of 2008 exposed the risk in asset allocation products designed in and built for a “Goldilocks” environment of non-inflationary growth. With a…
These days, capital accumulation plan (CAP) sponsors have a big job. Many plan members look to them for advice on their retirement plans. But sponsors…
It’s certainly no secret that during the last decade, the trend within the Canadian pension landscape has been for plan sponsors to move away from…
Dr. Damian Handzy admits he’s a skeptic. The chair and CEO of Investor Analytics, speaking yesterday at the Pension & Benefits Summit in Toronto, said…
Social media and technology is creating new opportunities to communicate with plan members, according to Kate Nazar, assistant vice-president, client relationships, group retirement services, with…
The federal government’s December 2010 announcement of the pooled retirement pension plan (PRPP) arrangement has been the most significant piece of pension reform introduced in…
If you’re already losing sleep over potential legal challenges from the members of your DC pension plan, here’s another item to add to the sobering…
Plan members, as investors, appear to remain skittish and nervous about the stock market despite the relatively strong rebound in stock prices over the past…
The grasshopper spent the warm months singing away while the ant worked to store up food for winter. When winter arrived, the grasshopper was dying…
The need to boost financial literacy among Canadians continues to capture a growing measure of attention from government and the media, plus plan sponsors, providers…