Home Michael McKiernan

By the time Nick Chamie graduated with his first degree in economics in 1992, the Berlin Wall had already fallen and the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. Still, Chamie — now the chief strategist and senior managing director at the Investment Management Corp. of Ontario — explains that, as he began making his way in the […]

  • November 17, 2023 November 16, 2023
  • 08:56

Considering women account for just over half of the population, Andrew MacDougall understands why — taken in isolation — the state of female representation at the top level of Canada’s public companies can seem a little underwhelming. According to the most recent round of disclosures, around 34 per cent of seats on the boards of […]

  • June 23, 2023 July 6, 2023
  • 08:56

Traditionally, Chinese workers have relied on two pillars of income in retirement — the basic state pension and employer-sponsored plans open to employees in certain sectors. However, in late 2022, the Chinese government poured some concrete into the mould of a third pillar, unveiling the details of a previously announced private pension scheme. Under the […]

  • March 17, 2023 March 17, 2023
  • 08:54

Finance’s toughest problem just got a whole lot trickier, thanks to the quandary of inflation. Legendary economist William F. Sharpe sealed his place in history when he collected the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on investment decision-making, but in defined contribution pension circles, the emeritus professor at Stanford University is […]

  • February 10, 2023 February 9, 2023
  • 08:55

Matching employer contributions in capital accumulation plans are as close to free money as employees can legally get. “You’re not changing your risk — because the money goes to the same fund it would otherwise — and you’re getting two-times the return,” says Eric Monteiro, senior vice-president of group retirement services at Sun Life Financial […]

  • November 18, 2022 November 22, 2022
  • 08:55

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 […]

  • October 14, 2022 October 13, 2022
  • 08:54

At the Alberta Investment Management Corp., diversity, equity and inclusion has catapulted up the priority list when it comes to investment strategy. While DEI has long played a role in the decisions of the AIMCo and other institutional investors, says Alison Schneider, the organization’s vice-president of responsible investing, she credits the coronavirus pandemic for catalyzing […]

  • June 24, 2022 June 23, 2022
  • 08:56

While politics plays a role in most investment decisions, it tends to arise on a fairly localized basis, says Michael Craig, head of the asset allocation and derivatives teams at TD Asset Management Inc. In addition, its prominence as a factor usually rises and falls on a cycle, slipping easily off investors’ radar in times […]

  • May 13, 2022 May 25, 2022
  • 08:53

Right from the very beginning, the coronavirus pandemic has taken Canadian real estate investors on a wild ride. After the freefalling panic of March 2020, the sector settled into a relatively comfortable rhythm and undulated through several waves of the virus, saving one of its steeper peaks and troughs for the tail end of 2021. […]

  • March 18, 2022 April 13, 2022
  • 08:54

Years before his late-career rebirth as nemesis to former U.S. President Donald Trump, Robert Muller coined a phrase that went down in history among cybersecurity experts. “I am convinced that there are only two types of companies: those that have been hacked and those that will be,” said the then Federal Bureau of Investigation director […]

  • December 17, 2021 December 16, 2021
  • 08:56