The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan’s struggles when the dot-com bubble burst planted the seeds for the liability-driven investing strategy it’s so well known for today. At the time, the plan had a traditional 60/40 portfolio of equities and bonds, and saw its significant funding surplus quickly turn into a deficit as equities took a […]
Defined benefit plan sponsors are undoubtedly familiar with scenario risk analysis, but applying that concept to their portfolio’s climate risk is a whole new ballgame. Plan sponsors will need to use these risk analyses to get a handle on how exposed they are to climate change risks and opportunities decades into the future, said Alyson […]
Central banks slowing their quantitative easing policies and economic improvements off the back of wide-scale vaccination efforts should both provide bond yields with a modest boost in 2021. But that won’t give defined benefit pension plan sponsors much relief. “You hear the phrase ‘low for long’ and I would agree we’re in an extended period […]
When the City of Toronto switched benefits plan insurers in 2017, it changed its coverage for biologics and biosimilars. Under its previous plan, the City reimbursed employees for the drugs their doctors recommended and prescribed; now, it follows its new insurer’s mandatory biosimilars policy, while grandfathering any plan member who was already taking a biologic […]
Defined benefit plan sponsors are undoubtedly familiar with scenario risk analysis, but applying that concept to their portfolio’s climate risk is a whole new ballgame. But plan sponsors will need to use these risk analyses to get a handle on how exposed they are to climate change risks and opportunities decades into the future, said […]
Central banks slowing their quantitative easing policies and economic improvements off the back of wide-scale vaccination efforts should both provide bond yields with a modest boost in 2021. But that won’t give defined benefit pension plan sponsors much relief. “You hear the phrase ‘low for long’ and I would agree we’re in an extended period […]
The coronavirus pandemic has significantly increased plan members’ willingness to seek help for their mental-health concerns and to access video or telephone counselling, said Julie Gaudry, senior director of group insurance for RBC Insurance, during Benefits Canada’s 2020 Mental Health Summit on Nov. 12. An RBC Insurance survey of plan members found two-thirds (67 per cent) […]
Trying to define the perfect portfolio is as complicated as asking what it takes to be healthy — with a number of factors at play and no singular answer. Even modern finance pioneers don’t agree on what the perfect portfolio looks like, noted Stephen Foerster, professor of finance at Western University’s Ivey Business School, when […]
The Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plan is betting that artificial intelligence and machine learning will play a role in pension administration going forward. “I won’t pretend that we’re Netflix or Tesla in this, but we are [taking] small steps today so we can take advantage of these advances of technology into the […]
The San Bernardino County Employees’ Retirement Association implemented a simple innovation 15 years ago that’s added nearly US$1 billion to the fund’s total value as of Aug. 31, 2020. That innovation is “informed rebalancing,” said Arun Muralidhar, adjunct professor of finance at George Washington University, when speaking at the Canadian Investment Review’s Investment Innovation Conference […]