A common concern among DB plan sponsors these days is the sustainability of their pension plan. This question typically translates into whether or not the markets will give us what we need to be able to pay for the pension promise.
New data released today by Statistics Canada indicate that the market value of employer-sponsored pension funds totalled $1.1 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2012. This is up 4.1% from the previous quarter and is the largest gain since the fourth quarter of 2010. In 2011, pension fund assets increased 4.6%, compared with 14.2% in 2010 and 10.5% in 2009. Asset allocation […]
A new actuarial report concludes that pension plans sponsored by U.S. Steel Canada are so underfunded that if the company were to go out of business, plan retirees would lose more than 40% of their pension value, according to an article in the Hamilton Spectator.
A group of six Canadian corporations has banded together in the hopes of receiving pension assistance from the Canadian government. But the federal Conservatives aren’t answering the call, reports Reuters.
The funded status of the typical U.S. corporate pension plan hit a record low in July, according to reports from BNY Mellon and Mercer.
Canadian pension plans lost some of their first quarter gains in the second quarter of this year, as concerns over the European debt crisis and a weakening global economy pushed Canadian equities lower, according to a survey by RBC Investor Services.
The CBC/Radio-Canada Pension plan has led the way with its LDI strategy, but public sector plans have also faced some tough critics and even tougher markets. Debra Alves, the plan’s managing director and CEO, describes the challenges of managing a public sector pension plan in a rough environment. How would you respond to critics of […]
It’s more bad news for Canadian pension plans. Yesterday, Mercer and Towers Watson both released their figures regarding DB plan funding in the second quarter of 2012—and both were looking pretty gloomy.
It was a difficult few months in the second quarter of 2012 for Canadian pension plans, according to reports released today by both Mercer and Towers Watson. Mercer’s Pension Health Index stands at 77% as of June 30, down 5% over the quarter. And Towers Watson’s DB Pension Index fell 1.4%.
U.S. public pensions had the largest investment earnings on record in the first quarter of 2012, $179.2 billion, the U.S. Census said on Thursday, offering some hope to the retirement systems for state and local governments that were battered during the financial crisis.