As we celebrate Benefits Canada’s 40th anniversary, it’s a good time to look ahead to the next 40 years. Looking ahead, I see the inevitable trend of health benefits moving to a defined contribution approach from a defined benefit one. I expect the trend to mirror the developments in the pension area over the last […]
Modern defined benefit pension plans provide the retirement income security Canadians want with the stable and predictable costs that employers desire. And, with recent changes, these modern plans are becoming a real and valuable option to a wide variety of sponsors. Looking to the past, employers offering a workplace pension plan chose between two basic […]
Ninety per cent of Canadians would be willing to contribute more to a pension to ensure they have a predictable income at retirement, according to research by the Canadian Public Pension Leadership Council. The survey, which polled 1,000 Canadians to understand their attitudes toward retirement income, asked participants to specifically quantify the maximum amount they […]
The gross income replacement level of capital accumulation plans has remained steady for both males and females over the previous quarter, while increasing investment returns were offset by a slight decrease in annuity rates, according to Eckler Ltd.’s capital accumulation plan income tracker. The tracker assumes the member made annual contributions at a rate of […]
Girls are “made of sugar and spice and everything nice — and gunpowder and Cubans and bourbon, no ice.” So sang Columbia Business School students in a 2014 parody music video about gender representation in their industry. But while many women now do the same jobs as men, their employment patterns remain distinct and, as […]
The Ontario government is moving to allow for variable benefits from defined contribution pension plans, according to the 2017 budget tabled yesterday. “I think it’s positive the Ontario government gets that [addressing] decumulation is a rising need for capital accumulation plans,” says Joe Nunes, president of Actuarial Solutions Inc. But he cautions that the proposed solution, […]
Meeting plan members’ retirement goals (29 per cent) and managing litigation risk (25 per cent) are the top factors driving defined contribution pension plan sponsor decision-making, according to new research by global investment manager PIMCO. The annual research surveyed nearly 70 defined contribution consultants and advisors providing services to more than 12,000 plan sponsors in […]
We’re living in a society with a new generation of employees who also happen to be digital natives. Generation-Y and millennials learn, act and understand very differently than the generations that came before them. They take a different look at their careers, the work environment and even retirement. In the age of defined benefit plans, […]
When it comes to addressing the many challenges facing pension and benefits plans, we already know many of the solutions. Taking action on them, however, is often a different matter. As Benefits Canada reported in its annual report on drug plan trends last month, many plan sponsors have reached a crisis point around escalating costs. […]
The Public Employees Benefits Agency, which administers the pension plan for public sector employees in Saskatchewan, has been looking at how to support members around decumulation for several years. “It’s a big issue. If you think about it, many people in a defined contribution plan go into a default fund and stay there forever. So […]