For most of the decade since I joined Benefits Canada, it feels like the pension industry has been moving at a snail’s pace. Don’t get me wrong — I have witnessed many substantial (dare I say, exciting) developments in the industry, each one touted as a potential solution to Canadians’ retirement readiness concerns and increasingly […]
Over the past 25 years, the pension industry has seen many significant shifts, from defined benefit to defined contribution, from accumulation to decumulation and from education and guidance to financial planning, said Chris Walker, regional vice-president of business development and investment strategy at Desjardins Insurance, during a session at Benefits Canada’s 2025 DC Plan Summit. […]
As defined contribution plans mature, Canada is seeing the first wave of retirees that only have DC plans and plan sponsors are facing the challenges of this decumulation phase. Speaking during a session at Benefits Canada’s 2025 DC Plan Summit, Yashar Zarrabian, regional vice-president for Quebec at Sun Life Financial Inc., outlined three pillars to […]
While good governance practices must be at the core of any pension plan, intricate frameworks are designed to be proportional to the size of the sponsoring organization, according to Leah Fichter, vice-chair at the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities and deputy superintendent of pensions and executive director of the pensions division at the Financial […]
Home-country bias is a conversation that ebbs and flows, with U.S. investment returns since the 2008/09 financial crisis reigniting the conversation, said Jon Knowles, institutional portfolio manager in global asset allocation at Fidelity Investments. However, it’s important to ask how to appropriately deal with home-country bias against a backdrop where one market and limited diversification […]
An emerging trend in U.S. defined contribution investment strategies is the ‘blend trend,’ which is a target-date solution that allocates to underlying building blocks that are managed both actively and passively. During a session at Benefits Canada’s 2025 DC Plan Summit, Jessica Sclafani, global retirement strategist at T. Rowe Price, shared data from the investment […]
With no federal requirement for U.S. employers to offer retirement savings options, individual states are stepping up and delivering meaningful programs. Speaking at Benefits Canada’s 2025 Defined Contribution Plan Summit, Michael Frerichs, state treasurer at the Illinois Treasurer’s Office, said the U.S. is facing a retirement crisis and he hopes these government tools can be […]
Since 2008, when the U.S. enacted legislation allowing target-date funds as the default, total assets in these funds have grown from around US$150 billion to $3 trillion, according to Glenn Dial, vice-president of retirement thought leadership and research at American Century Investments, during a session sponsored by CIBC Asset Management Inc. at Benefits Canada’s 2025 […]
In the early days of Bell Canada’s defined contribution plan, there was a lot of emphasis on information and big campaigns, but at that time, employers were reluctant to get too involved, according to Robert Marchessault, the telecommunications company’s director of pension and benefits, noting it was soon clear its members needed more guidance. Speaking […]
Three-quarters (76 per cent) of Canadian capital accumulation plan sponsors say employees’ financial resilience and retirement readiness are the main reasons they’re modernizing their plan, up from 41 per cent in 2020, according to a new survey by WTW. The survey, which polled more than 150 Canadian employers, found two-thirds (64 per cent) are also […]