The Association of Canadian Pension Management is calling on Prince Edward Island’s pension regulator to amend the Employment Standards Act to facilitate auto-enrolment and auto-escalation features in workplace pension and savings plans. The current legislation includes language that would prohibit pension plan administrators from introducing automatic features in workplace plans, including capital accumulation plans such […]
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario are putting forward six recommendations for strengthening the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authority’s capital accumulation plan guidelines. In a webinar hosted in November 2021, the regulators shared the outcomes of its technical advisory committee and solicited feedback from the […]
An eight-year legal effort to reverse a law that transformed New Brunswick’s public sector pension plan away from an indexed defined benefits model is being scrapped. Pension Coalition NB, an association that represents 13,000 public sector retirees in the province, will end its legal efforts to oppose a 2013 bill that transformed N.B.’s public sector pensions […]
Manitoba is amending its pension regulatory system in order to strengthen the province’s pension regulatory and solvency framework. The changes, which took effect on Dec. 20, 2021, establish new rules for the funding of private sector defined benefit pension plans, including reducing the solvency deficiency threshold at which special payments must be made from 100 […]
Members of Puerto Rico’s public sector pension plans are facing a benefits freeze and the transformation of their defined benefits plans to defined contribution plans. The decision to cut changed the plans was made as a result of an ongoing financial crisis in the most populous U.S. territory. After it defaulted on bonds in 2014, politicians […]
As a new year dawns, our attention turns to what’s ahead, the following are a few of my predictions for trends in the world of pensions in 2022. Volatility We’re entering the year in an environment of considerable economic and financial market uncertainty. Supply chain problems, elevated price inflation and labour shortages in certain industries […]
Jan. 1 felt like Groundhog Day for all employees and employers paying into the Canada Pension Plan. Like last year, contributions went up again by more than originally planned. The reason again lies with the unique impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the labour market. The increase is part of a multi-year plan approved by provinces and […]
Among 2021’s most popular pension stories on BenefitsCanada.com, Benefits Canada and the Canadian Institutional Investment Network’s rankings of the top 100 defined benefit plans and top 50 defined contribution plans were nearly the bookends to the top 10. 2021 Top 100 Pension Funds Report: DB plans shining bright amid pandemic clouds CPP maximum pensionable earnings rising […]
Five years after Ontario’s auditor general uncovered an issue with the way the province was including pension assets in its financial statements, the office is proposing changes related to accounting in defined benefit pension plans. The auditor general’s 2016 annual report revealed a deficit of $5 billion, while the province’s government set the deficit at […]
Four undergraduates from the Copenhagen Business School have claimed the top prize at the 2021 McGill International Portfolio Challenge by designing a collective defined contribution plan aimed at balancing the needs of older and younger plan members. Since 2017, the MPIC has challenged university students around the world to propose solutions to societal issues. This […]