Designing an effective program is not easy. Experience shows that employee engagement in defined contribution (DC) plans is often low and leads to low participation rates in the program, lower savings rates than may be desirable, and failure to actively select/modify an asset mix appropriate for the member’s actual risk tolerance. Each of these outcomes […]
Other Brieflies this week:| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | Following significant net improvement through 2006 and 2007, there has been little net change but significant volatility in the GAAP funded positions of Canadian pension plans over the first half of 2008, according to a recent analysis conducted by Watson Wyatt. […]
Other Brieflies this week:| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | A group representing chief investment officers of major private retirement plans in the United States is concerned about proposals restricting pension investments in commodities. Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday, William Quinn, chair of the […]
Should pension plans maintain a high allocation to public market equities? In the rush to the LDI exit doors, many pension plans are reducing their allocation to public market equities, some by a material amount. Is this a prudent strategy? The answer, of course, is—“it depends”—on the plan’s benefit design, funded status, investment horizon and […]
Faced with the age-old problem of plan member disengagement and the heightened risk of employee litigation, plan sponsors are starting to turn to target date funds. But not all of these funds are created equal. Selecting the right default investment option has become a foremost issue for sponsors within Canada’s $93-billion Capital Accumulation Plan (CAP) […]
The Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions (OECP) will submit its report to the province by the end of October, a few weeks later than expected, said commission member Kathryn Bush at a recent Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP seminar in Toronto. While she expects the report will be completed on time (by the end of […]
A spin on the traditional target date fund offers greater flexibility and simplified governance for CAP sponsors. When it comes to investing, people are always wondering, What’s going to be the next big thing? For capital accumulation plans (CAPs) and member investments, target date funds (TDFs) are it. But there is no need to wait: […]
Pension funds may be about to experience the second perfect hundred year storm in this decade. With Canadian stock markets already down this year and central banks reducing interest rates to support a soft economy, the conditions experienced in 1999-2001 appear poised to re-occur. (This combination hurts pension funds since asset values fall while discounted […]
The case for lifecycle investing. Many Canadians are likely due for a jarring wake-up call come retirement. A closer look at the retirement equation and the effect of changing demographic and consumption patterns supports this assertion. For the purposes of this article, the retirement equation is simplified as: Savings x Returns = Retirement Assets. The […]
BetaPro Management has launched four new exchange traded funds (ETFs) covering natural gas and crude oil. The new ETFs are: the Horizons BetaPro NYMEX Natural Gas Bull Plus ETF, the Horizons BetaPro NYMEX Natural Gas Bear Plus ETF, the Horizons BetaPro NYMEX Crude Oil Bull Plus ETF, and the Horizons BetaPro NYMEX Crude Oil Bear […]