FTSE Russell has built a series of customizable multi-asset indexes. The FTSE Multi-Asset Composite Index series will focus on measuring cross-asset market performance over a number of regions including the U.S., Europe, China as well as other emerging markets. The series was built in response to demand from clients for methods to measure multi-asset performance with more accuracy […]
FTSE International Ltd. is appointing Paul Bowes in the newly created role of Canadian country head. In the position, Bowes will oversee the Toronto team and report to Waqas Samud, the organization’s chief executive officer, who is also the group director for information services at the London Stock Exchange Group. “I’m excited to have Paul join […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plans’ solvency position rose in the first quarter of 2019, according to two new pension indexes. Representing the solvency ratio of a hypothetical plan, Mercer Canada’s index sat at 106 per cent on March 31, up from 102 per cent at the start of the year. The median solvency ratio of Mercer clients’ pension plans […]
\Over the course of the last 15 years we have seen an increase in the number of frozen corporate defined benefit plans in Canada. Frozen plans have limited the future benefit accruals in the plan, either through closing membership to new employees or, in some cases, freezing future service accruals to existing members. This fundamental […]
With turbulent equity markets, fixed income has a major role to play as defined benefit pensions look to more closely match their liabilities and investments, says Steve Peacher, president of Sun Life Investment Management. “The big mismatch over time has been a duration and curve mismatch,” he says. “People have had long liabilities. They haven’t focused […]
The U.S. customized target-date fund market grew to US$430 billion at the end of 2017, according to the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association. The DCIIA’s inaugural survey on the market, which included data from 65 plans with a total of 673 different funds, found the majority of these funds are allocated to a mix of equities and fixed income. […]
Many investors believe the end of the current economic cycle is coming, according to Invesco’s latest global fixed income survey. While 49 per cent of respondents said they expect the current cycle to last one or two more years, a slim majority (52 per cent) of North American investors said it will end earlier. Investors in […]
Buy-in and buyout annuity sales hit their highest level in Canadian history in 2018, reaching $4.5 billion, an increase of $800 million over 2017, according to data from Eckler Ltd. The purchases represent a 20 per cent increase in the volume of group annuities bought by Canadian pension plans, year over year. Buy-in annuities, which made up more than […]
The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan grew its assets to $79 billion in 2018, up from $77.8 billion at the end of 2017. However, the plan’s funded status fell slightly to 121 per cent, down from 122 per cent the previous year. It eked out a positive 2.17 per cent return in 2018, beating its benchmark, which returned […]
The OPSEU Pension Trust is making an additional purchase of $100 million in Ontario government green bonds, bringing its allocation in the asset to about one per cent of its total holdings. The bonds are a tool the provincial government uses to finance transit and energy efficiency projects, according to the press release. “As a […]