The 7% provincial retail sales tax (RST) announced in the Manitoba government’s budget tabled in April 2012 will apply to group life insurance premiums, says a Mercer Communique.
There’s nothing like a good debate—especially when it concerns saving money.
The European Commission is on the cusp of endorsing the revised International Accounting Standard (IAS 19) for use by Europe-listed companies, but the effects on many companies’ financial statements remain uncertain, according to Mercer.
Malcolm Hamilton's history of DB mistakes and why targeted benefit plans are a solution.
Discount rates overstate plan health: DBRS
Liability driven investment (LDI) can help DB pension plans match their assets to their liabilities. But it’s not an approach adopted by every plan.
There may have been a strong rally in equity markets in the first quarter of 2012, but the financial status of pension plans only improved slightly, according to Aon Hewitt.
The solvency position of most Canadian pension plans improved in the first quarter of 2012 on the back of good equity market returns and a slight increase in long-term federal bond yields, according to the Mercer Pension Health Index. The index—which shows the ratio of assets to liabilities for a model pension plan—stood at 63% on March 31, up 3% from the end of the previous quarter.
The federal budget remained fairly silent on employer-provided benefits and healthcare provisions, but one quiet note in the document could play into future considerations for employers that self-insure their disability plans.
A passion for using Excel files to model financial trends led Toronto-based Malcolm Hamilton to the uncomfortable realization, in the mid-1990s, that DB plans were not going to work.