Home Michael McKiernan

Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate arm of the Caisse de dépot et placement du Québec, has partnered with U.S. firm GID to create an investment platform targeting industrial assets.  GID Industrial’s primary focus will be on acquiring, developing and managing infill industrial product in growing markets across the U.S., with an emphasis on locations close […]

  • April 15, 2021 April 25, 2021
  • 09:00

A first-quarter rally in both the equity markets and bond yields have propelled defined benefit pensions to their best funded positions in more than a decade, according to a report by Morneau Shepell. Based on raw data from the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and internal sources that Morneau Shepell uses to compile its indices, the […]

  • April 13, 2021 May 11, 2021
  • 12:00

The Caisse de dépot et placement du Québec is partnering with alternative investment manager Energize Ventures to promote digital innovation in the energy and sustainable industry sectors. The co-investment partnership will see the Caisse commit up to $125 million over the next three years to ventures targeted at digital technologies that will advance the sustainable […]

  • April 8, 2021 April 8, 2021
  • 13:00

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is getting into the legal technology business after agreeing to a strategic investment in software provider Miratech. Miratech’s legal and compliance products count more than 500,000 users around the world, including the corporate legal departments at most companies listed on the Fortune 100, according to a press release. Read: Ontario […]

  • April 1, 2021 April 25, 2021
  • 13:12

The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan ended 2020 with a funded status of 119 per cent and posted a return of 11.42 per cent over the course of the year, according to a press release. That figure was lower than the 17.14 per cent return delivered in 2019, but Jeff Wendling, the plan’s president and chief […]

  • April 1, 2021 April 1, 2021
  • 13:00

Like many pension experts, Peter Ballon, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s global head of real estate, will have the early days of March 2020 seared into his memory for many years to come. As the coronavirus pandemic took hold, grinding domestic and international travel to a halt, he — like the rest of the […]

  • March 19, 2021 September 7, 2021
  • 08:55

Anyone flipping through a prospectus for an employer’s defined contribution pension plan or group registered retirement savings plan will notice a recurring theme when it comes to statements on investment fees: “Better than retail!” they might as well scream. It’s a familiar refrain from both capital accumulation plan sponsors and providers trumpeting the lower rates […]

  • December 18, 2020 March 2, 2021
  • 09:43

Anyone flipping through a prospectus for an employer’s defined contribution pension plan or group registered retirement savings plan will notice a recurring theme when it comes to statements on investment fees: “Better than retail!” they might as well scream. It’s a familiar refrain from both capital accumulation plan sponsors and providers trumpeting the lower rates […]

  • December 18, 2020 April 23, 2021
  • 08:57

In 2016, when Aon’s Calum Mackenzie departed the U.K. for Canada, he left behind a pension industry still reeling from the introduction, a year earlier, of an annual charge cap on defined contribution plan investment funds. But when Mackenzie, now the consultancy’s Canadian head of investment, recently caught up with a former colleague on the […]

  • March 20, 2020 March 4, 2021
  • 08:52

Squeezed by onerous funding requirements and overarching fiduciary duties, defined benefit plan sponsors are increasingly willing to embrace alternative structures — such as multi-employer pension plans, jointly sponsored pension plans and pooled registered pension plans — to relieve some of the pressure. “Most employers simply shouldn’t be in the business of running a pension plan, […]

  • February 14, 2020 March 4, 2021
  • 08:54