U.S. state and municipal pension funds are on track to miss investment targets and are unlikely to see meaningful improvements in their unfunded liabilities or funded ratios in 2023, according to a new report by the Equable Institute. The report, which analyzed trends in benefits, cash flows, contributions, funding and investments at 225 of the […]
In 2022, the typical defined benefit pension plan achieved an investment return of roughly negative 12 per cent. However, due to dramatic increases in bond yields and a subsequent decrease in pension liabilities, many pension plans ended 2022 with the same — or better — solvency funded level that they had at the beginning of […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plans generated a median return of 4.23 per cent for the first quarter of 2023, according to the BNY Mellon Canadian asset strategy view universe. Among traditional asset classes, global equities posted the strongest performance, with a quarterly median return of 7.32 per cent, while Canadian fixed income returns were the […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plans generated a median return of four per cent in the first quarter of 2023, up from 3.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the RBC Investor and Treasury Services’ universe. The most substantial increase among asset classes was foreign equities, which returned 6.9 per cent for […]
Institutional investors should be adopting innovative thematic approaches to derive more value from private markets, according to Nelson Lam, senior vice-president of equity and alternative investments at Trans-Canada Capital Inc., during a session at the Canadian Investment Review‘s 2022 Investment Innovation Conference. “Why private markets? There’s at least 10-times as many private companies as public […]
Four major misconceptions about fixed income impact investing have taken root in the minds of many institutional investors, according to Matt Lawton, fixed income portfolio manager of global impact credit strategy at T. Rowe Price, during a session at the Canadian Investment Review‘s 2022 Investment Innovation Conference. The first, he noted, is that investors can’t […]
The aggregate funded status of the largest U.S. corporate defined benefit pension plans ended 2022 at 95 per cent, unchanged from the beginning of the year, according to a new report by WTW. The report, which analyzed data from more than 350 Fortune 1000 companies that sponsor DB pension plans, found pension obligations declined 26 […]
In the current market, institutional investors should consider increasing allocations to real estate and real estate investment trusts, said Joseph Shaw, managing partner and head of institutional sales at Hazelview Investments, during the Canadian Investment Review’s 2022 Defined Benefit Investment Forum. In the past decade, the average defined benefit pension plan’s allocation to real estate has risen, […]
Canadian pension plan investments saw very modest gains in the third quarter of 2022 as both stock and bond markets responded favourably to the pace of interest rate hikes around the globe, according to a new report by Northern Trust Canada. The report, which tracks the performance of Canadian defined benefit plans, found the median […]
As a fresh-faced elementary school student in 1977, Aaron Bennett wasn’t quite in the target demographic for the freshly launched Benefits Canada magazine. Still, Bennett — now the chief investment officer at Ontario’s University Pension Plan — has a pretty firm grasp on the concerns that would have occupied the minds of his predecessors as […]