As Brett Gallagher drifted in and out of sleep in front of the TV in his hotel room on March 11, 2011, he vaguely remembered hearing something about Japan and an earthquake and tsunami. The next day, as he watched his sons play baseball at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he was visiting […]
New Brunswick’s public servants can feel a little more comfortable about their pensions. On Tuesday, the New Brunswick Investment Management Corp. reported a 10.4% gross rate of return for the 2010/11 fiscal year. The annual real return for the fund since the corporation was launched in 1996 has been 4.74%, according to its CEO, John […]
We’ve seen consolidation across a range of service providers in recent years, including insurers and custodians. Now it’s the consultants’ turn. Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt joined forces to form Towers Watson (14,000 employees globally), completing the transaction in January 2010. And in October 2010, Aon Corporation completed its acquisition of Hewitt Associates to create […]
Who knew that a drop in the Dow on May 6, 2010, would lead to a T-shirt emblazoned with “I survived the crash of 2:45 pm.”? James Allen, head of capital markets policy at the CFA Institute in Charlottesville, Va., certainly didn’t. But he found out about the “Flash Crash” soon enough. Allen was on […]
Sponsors of DB pension plans continue to face the same old struggle: managing risk. That was the main theme of the DB track at Benefits Canada’s 2011 Benefits & Pension Summit. DB experts examined risk in detail and also provided attendees with perspectives on investment strategies relating to currency management and emerging and frontier markets. […]
Why should employers implement health promotions? Essentially, we promote health to our employees so they’ll be more successful in the workplace and also know that they are valued. In turn, this can affect engagement, retention and attraction of top employees. What are you hoping to add to UBC’s health initiatives? Lots more. We’re planning to […]
For the University of British Columbia (UBC), integrating health and wellness practices into the institution’s culture has been a process. Health promotions for faculty and staff at the 103-year-old Vancouver-based university formally began in 2003 with a one-day Health Symposium, which included a keynote speaker, a lunch and a series of sessions. “Employees were encouraged […]
Instead of enjoying a networking lunch and golf game with a banker friend in Vienna on Sept. 14, 2008—the day before Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection—Tom MacMillan was cloistered in his hotel room. The then-CEO of CIBC Mellon (now chair of its board of directors) was in the Austrian capital for Sibos, […]
AIMA Canada presented its 8th annual luncheon debate on May 25 at The National Club in Toronto. The tongue-in-cheek debate looked at which risk investors should be prepared for in the next few years: inflation or deflation. Hubert Marleau, co-founder of Palos Management in Montreal, argued for inflation and Derek Holt, vice-president of Scotia Capital […]
Pension funds can’t afford not to have a view on emerging markets, according to Paul Kapsos, portfolio manager, emerging markets, with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Speaking at the Pension & Benefits Summit on April 28 in Toronto, Kapsos added that the long-term risk/return trade-off has been positive to emerging market equities. But which of […]