While the overall financial state of Ontario’s defined benefit pension plans improved in 2019, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario continues to monitor fluctuations caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In the FSRA’s new report, it projected the estimated going-concern and solvency funding positions of the province’s DB plans to a common year-end date. […]
With federal and provincial regulators introducing relief measures this year to support pension plans amid the financial upheaval resulting from the coronavirus crisis, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario saw a lot of action from plan sponsors registered in the province. “In terms of whether plans are taking advantage of the relief — they are in […]
Looking back at all of the pension legislation stories we’ve written up during the coronavirus pandemic, I’ve noticed federal and provincial governments definitely favoured defined benefit plans over defined contribution plans in their various temporary regulations. In the first month of the pandemic, the feds halted solvency special payments for federally regulated DB plans until […]
Faced with ballooning and unsustainable public pension liabilities, Taiwan’s government was forced to make a tough decision. In 2017, the country’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party passed a bill to dramatically cut retirement benefits for the country’s civil servants, public school teachers, police officers, firefighters and private sector workers. The changes were unpopular, but necessary. Underfunded […]
The median projected solvency for Ontario’s defined benefit pension plans increased to 90 per cent at the end of 2020’s second quarter, up from 85 per cent in the first quarter, as measured by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario. The regulator estimated about three-quarters of plans had double-digit investment returns for the quarter, […]
In considering changes to its retirement savings programs, Rogers Communications Inc. is generally focused on three main internal and external factors: regulatory changes, employee feedback and demographics. “As we see the millennial and gen Z workforce grow quite a bit, we’re really trying to understand what that’s going to do to our plans in terms […]
In the wake of the pandemic-related market volatility that battered already challenged public sector defined benefit plans in the U.S., a recent paper by New York University’s Stern School of Business is arguing that Canadian-style reforms could help secure these plans for the long term. “The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new fissures in state and local […]
The Public Sector Alliance of Canada is asking the federal government to change the way it reports the unfunded liabilities of public sector pension plans, arguing the current practice makes the cost of the plans appear more volatile. The federal government implemented a new discount rate methodology in 2017/18 for pre-2000 pension liabilities. It moved from using a 20-year […]
The coronavirus pandemic is fundamentally changing the future of work and, very likely, the nature of employer-sponsored benefits and pension plans. Looking to the end of the crisis, Canadian consultants see an array of major changes on the horizon, from more flexible benefits plans and mental-health care to an outsourcing of pension administration and the […]
In a letter to the Canada Revenue Agency’s registered plans directorate, the Association of Canadian Pension Management said a new draft bulletin only covers a concern attached to smaller pension plans and shouldn’t apply to larger, employer-sponsored plans. The ACPM said it recognizes the agency’s efforts in providing guidance on apportioning assets and actuarial liabilities in actuarial valuation reports for […]