When Bell Canada was communicating defined contribution plan changes to members in 2024, it turned to artificial intelligence to help personalize its message to all of its 25,000 plan members. The redesign, which aimed to respond to members’ different financial priorities, enhanced the company’s savings options with a first home savings account, a tax-free savings […]
What’s a plan administrator to do when an individual makes a claim to a pension entitlement that goes back many years after their employment — or in some cases, the employment of a spouse, partner, parent or even grandparent — has ended and available pension records are inconclusive? In a perfect world, when pension inquiries […]
While workplace savings programs have traditionally focused on retirement, there has been a shift in recent years to facilitate employees’ changing financial priorities and savings journeys. Benefits Canada’s 2025 Employee Savings Survey (formerly known as the CAP Member Survey) found three-quarters (73 per cent) of Canadian employees ranked paying for day-to-day expenses among their top […]
While many people know the reward of a hard day’s work goes well beyond a salary, an increasing number of employees don’t understand the real value of the total rewards they receive from their employer. At the same time, employers are struggling to communicate the value of the benefits they offer. One way to improve […]
A pension dashboard that consolidates all of an individual’s pension and retirement information using pre-populated data would make it significantly easier for Canadians to access and understand their retirement savings, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. “Canada’s current retirement landscape offers numerous savings vehicles, giving individuals more choices than in the […]
The implementation of variable payment life annuities in Quebec will support employee financial well-being and retirement readiness, while providing a model for other Canadian jurisdictions, says Louis-Bernard Désilets, an associate at Normandin Beaudry. “Currently, there’s approximately $1.5 trillion in retirement savings accumulated in [registered retirement savings plans] and [defined contribution] plans in Canada, with likely […]
Defined contribution pension plan sponsors are navigating the demands of a strict asset allocation guideline in accordance with Islam by incorporating Sharia-compliant funds into their plans’ investment lineups. One reason is the increasingly diverse makeup of the Canadian workforce. According to Statistics Canada, the country’s Muslim population doubled between 2001 and 2021, from two per […]
Risk management continues to be one of the hottest topics in the pension industry for a number of reasons, including the uncertainty caused by the current geopolitical and economic climate and the September 2024 release of the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities’ new guideline for risk management for plan administrators. While pension plan administrators […]
The Association of Canadian Pension Management is recommending a few amendments to the Pension Benefits Standards Act, including the required disclosure to spouses and electronic communications with plan beneficiaries. In a letter to the Department of Finance, the ACPM noted the PBSA currently requires information that’s provided to a plan member or former member — […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plan sponsors have an average per-member administration cost of US$165, according to a new report by CEM Benchmarking Inc. The report, which analyzed 80 global DB plans, found the average per-member administration cost was $164 in the Netherlands, but was $105 in the U.S. and $71 in the U.K. It noted […]