With global equities rebounding after a volatile end to 2018, Canadian defined benefit pension plans posted positive returns in the first quarter of 2019, according to new data by Northern Trust Corp. The Northern Trust Canada Universe, which tracks the performance of Canadian institutional investment plans using the firm’s asset servicing offerings, found Canadian plans posted a median […]
After starting to manage funds for its first two clients, the Ontario Pension Board and the province’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, the Investment Management Corp. of Ontario has released its 2018 annual report outlining its progress. Though the investment results of its activities will be reported independently by its clients, the report delineated the specifics of […]
With global and domestic equities rallying in the first quarter of 2019, Canadian defined benefit plan returns were lifted to 7.2 per cent in the first three months of the year, according to RBC Investor and Treasury Services’ universe of DB pension plans. This compares with a negative return of 3.5 per cent for the fourth […]
The Nova Scotia Teachers’ pension plan posted a net loss in assets for 2018, down to $4.94 billion from $5.11 billion at the end of 2017. On a going-concern basis, the plan’s funded status also dropped to 75.3 per cent, from 78.4 per cent, as at Dec. 1, 2018, according to the Teachers’ Pension Plan Trustee Inc., which […]
Pooled pension fund managers bounced back in the first quarter of 2019, posting a median return before management fees of 8.3 per cent, up from the negative 5.6 per cent return they posted in the final quarter of 2018, according to Morneau Shepell Ltd.’s latest data. However, the firm’s pension performance universe came in 0.4 per […]
Looks aren’t a solid basis on which to form a long-term relationship and neither is the surface-level appearance of a target-date fund. “In a perfect world, we would like our members to have a long-term relationship with a target-date fund we’re offering,” said Zaheed Jiwani, a principal at Eckler Ltd., at Benefits Canada‘s 2019 Benefits […]
With Venezuela in the midst of a political and economic crisis, this is highlighting the need for investors to not only focus on default risk in fixed income, but also recovery risk, says Hamed Faquiryan, vice-president in the fixed income and multi-asset class research team at MSCI Inc. Although there are numerous issues, people who […]
At the start of April, the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index started including Chinese bonds. “Adding China to a benchmark global bond index – with two more global indexes likely to follow suit – will attract many investors to China’s domestic bond market, some for the first time,” said Kenneth Ho, managing director and head of Asia credit strategy […]
Since using a single benchmark portfolio to measure a pension plan’s funding status paints a narrow picture, a new report by PBI Actuaries and Consultants looked at four different portfolio types to see how the equity fall off at the end of the year, among other market events, affected different asset mixes. The liability portfolio kept […]
As Canadian pension plans look globally for fixed income, FTSE Russell has introduced a country classification framework to make the process of managing country inclusion of its flagship fixed income indexes more transparent. Beyond the U.S., Canadian funds are interested globally, says Marina Mets, managing director of fixed income at FTSE Russell. When going global, […]