When Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital merged in April 2025, leaders weren’t just bringing together two sites and two cultures, they also had to merge two very different pension arrangements. For years, Grand River had run its own defined benefit plan worth more than $650 million, while St. Mary’s employees had been […]
With inflation still squeezing household budgets, interest rates elevated compared to pre-pandemic norms and an ageing workforce heading towards retirement, employees are under more pressure than ever to make the right financial decisions. For many, their workplace savings plan is the cornerstone of their retirement, but without proper guidance they risk costly mistakes during this […]
Verizon Communications Inc. is facing a lawsuit by retirees alleging the organization breached its fiduciary duties and engaged in prohibited transactions when it completed a US$5.9 billion pension risk transfer to Prudential Insurance Co. of America nearly a year ago, according to a report by Investment News. The proposed class action lawsuit, filed in December […]
From the unlocking of pension benefits in Nova Scotia to new pay transparency rules in Ontario, stories about pension and employment legislation caught the eyes of Benefits Canada’s readers in 2024. In addition, a pair of articles on the rollout of new glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist medications in Canada were also popular with readers. Here […]
When communicating risk management posturing to executive boards, it’s important for pension plan sponsors to tell a cohesive and fulsome story, said Danny Ip, director of investment risk and analytics for the Toronto Transit Commission Pension Plan, during the Canadian Investment Review‘s 2024 Risk Management Conference. The TTC plan, which has $8.7 billion in assets under management, has […]
With many Canadian defined benefit pension plans in a strong funded position, plan sponsors, particularly those with unionized workforces, are increasingly discussing the use of surplus funds, says Gavin Benjamin, a partner in the retirement and benefits solutions practice at Telus Health. The funded position of a typical Canadian defined benefit pension plan rose on […]
The estimated cost to transfer retiree pension risk to an insurer in a competitive bidding process increased from 100.3 per cent of a plan’s accounting liabilities in March to 100.9 per cent in April, according to Milliman Inc.’s latest pension buyout index. The index uses the FTSE above median AA curve and annuity purchase composite […]
Ford of Canada is is transferring the longevity risk for $923 million in pension plan liabilities through a group annuity buyout. RBC Insurance, Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada and Desjardins Group will assume responsibility for making pension payments to 2,700 of the plan’s members, who retired on or prior to June 1, 2021. Read: GM Canada […]
The estimated cost to transfer retiree pension risk to an insurer in a competitive bidding process decreased from 101.8 per cent of a plan’s accounting liabilities in November to 100.5 per cent of those liabilities in December, according to Milliman Inc.’s latest pension buyout index. The index uses the FTSE above median AA curve and […]
Pension plan sponsors must effectively employ care, diligence and skill when facing cybersecurity threats, said Sandeep Kakan, board trustee and secretary at the Canada-Wide Industrial Pension Plan, during a session at the Canadian Investment Review’s 2023 Defined Benefit Investment Forum in December. Cybersecurity concerns are rising in the aftermath of the MOVEit hack, which compromised […]