Sun Life Financial Canada has appointed Jacques Goulet as president, with current president Kevin Dougherty moving into the newly created role of executive vice-president of innovation and partnerships. Goulet joins Sun Life from Mercer, where he was president of health and wealth, and responsible for the organization’s global retirement, health, investment consulting and investment management […]
With the new Alberta dental fee guide taking effect on Jan. 1, 2018, many plan sponsors will likely be taking a look at their benefits plans to consider the impact of the changes on them. The new fee guide provides for an 8.5 per cent cut in suggested prices for 60 common procedures. Most plan sponsors will […]
Looking to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Vancouver? That’ll set you back more than $3,000 a month, according to recent reports. If it’s time to buy, recent figures put the price of the average detached house in the Vancouver area at a cool $1.6 million. Understandably, many people can’t make those prices work, which can […]
More than 2,500 Canadians died from opioid-related overdoses in 2016, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. The situation is particularly grave in the West. This year, British Columbia alone is on track to see 1,400 deaths due to opioids. The province declared a state of emergency in April 2016, and Alberta followed suit […]
Macroeconomic trends such as longer lives, a lack of access to pensions and retirement supports, a low-growth environment, and persistent lack of financial literacy and trust in financial markets are creating a significant retirement savings gap between what people require in retirement and what they’ve actually saved. This is a global issue. But in Canada alone, […]
Two-thirds of institutional investors consider environmental, social and governance factors, according to a survey conducted by RBC Global Asset Management Inc. The survey, which questioned 434 institutional asset owners and investment consultants in Canada, the United States and Europe, found that of the two-thirds that do consider such factors, 25 per cent intend to boost their allocations to managers […]
Canada’s retirement system has maintained its B rating on the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index, as its overall score rose slightly from 66.4 in 2016 to 66.8 in 2017. However, Canada’s sustainability score dropped due to the recent move to maintain old-age eligibility at age 65. “Canada’s recent change to maintain the eligibility for old-age security at age 65, […]
The Global Risk Institute in Financial Services is creating a national pension hub that will be a Canadian centre for pension knowledge and research. It will provide research into pensions and income security that it hopes will lead the way to new solutions to plan design, governance and investment challenges, according to a release. “The […]
DB plans see third consecutive quarter of increased solvency levels.
Canadian defined benefit pension plans made gains in their solvency position in the third quarter of 2017, according to the Mercer Pension Health Index. The index, which shows the solvency ratio of a hypothetical Canadian plan, rose to 106 per cent, compared with 102 per cent at the start of the year. Of Mercer’s plan […]