Blue Pier is introducing a new customized, fully outsourced workplace pension plan to encourage all employers to offer retirement savings programs to their employees. The product allows employers to choose the plan design, including defined benefit, defined contribution, target benefit and hybrid options. They then enrol staff and make contributions, while Blue Pier will manage the plan, […]
As lobbying efforts intensify to keep Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ employees in the public service pension, plans are moving ahead to convert a multi-union, multi-employer plan into a target-benefit arrangement. Collective agreements ratified in September 2015 between the United Steelworkers union and CNL state that employees hired before that date would stay in the public plan until September 2018, […]
If re-elected, the Ontario Liberals are promising to expand access to workplace pension plans in the private sector, improve portability and create options for the self-employed and other workers to opt into. With just three weeks to go before Ontarians head to the polls, the party also said it would help ensure that pensioners receive greater priority […]
With the aging of Canada’s population, the move to defined contribution pension plans in the private sector and increases in life expectancy, the issue of decumulation is growing in importance. Decumulation deals with converting retirees’ savings into periodic income that must last for the rest of their lifetime. That can be a challenge for Canadians who […]
Earlier this month, the Pension Investment Association of Canada came out in support of Ontario’s proposed regulations for variable benefits from defined contribution pension plans. The support came with a caveat, however. “PIAC supports the proposal that the provision of variable benefits from DC plans is voluntary for employers,” Brenda King, chair of the association, […]
Pension plan sponsors can save money by ensuring their plan texts and other communications materials are free of mistakes, says Mitch Frazer, a partner and the chair of the pensions and employment practice at Torys LLP. At a pension and benefits fundamentals program held by the Toronto chapter of the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists […]
Despite his death earlier this year, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad’s influence lives on at the international furniture behemoth. The notoriously frugal Kamprad reportedly flew economy class, whether for company or personal travel, and drove an old Volvo. The iconic Swedish retailer remains committed to operating within the guidelines set by his 1976 treatise, “The testament of […]
There has been a lot of talk about variable benefits from defined contribution pension plans recently. Ontario has changes in the works to allow them, while a number of provinces have moved on the issue in recent years. And while it’s not yet common for plan sponsors to offer variable benefits, some organizations have had the […]
A prescription drug cap is among the issues in a strike by United Steelworkers union members in western Labrador. The union members work for the Iron Ore Co. of Canada, a joint venture involving Rio Tinto, which holds 58.7 per cent, Mitsubishi Corp. and the Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Income Corp. According to the CBC, the […]
Hub International Ltd. has acquired yet another benefits brokerage: Quebec-based Les Avantages Sociaux Delta Inc. Based in the Montreal area, Delta provides support and actuarial services for group insurance and retirement plans, as well as human resources and disability management. With the acquisition, Delta will join Hub’s Quebec business. Delta’s founder and chairman, Roger d’Eschambault, […]