Articles and documents addressing pension plans in Canada (both DB and DC pensions). The most popular Canadian DB (defined benefits) pensions papers are those which focus on pensions funding, pensions risk management, valuation methods and assumptions used by Canadian DB pension schemes. White papers on Canadian DC pensions issues covers a variety of topics, with opinion... divided of whether the level of Canadian pensions saving is adequate or sustainable. Reports which examine the costs of Canada's mutual fund-based retirement system have been well-liked. Globally, Canadian pension funds have been ahead of the game (comparatively) in view of their investment in infrastructure, and a case study examining the lessons learned for other pension funds investing in infrastructure has been one of our best papers. More recently, a survey of salaries for Canadian investment professionals (CFA Charterholders) has proved very popular.
This report by Willis Towers Watson's Thinking Ahead Institute provides detailed analysis of the world's largest pension funds. Funds increased their value by 15.1% in 2017, compared to an increase of 6.1% in 2016. North America remains the largest region in terms of assets under management (AUM), accounting for 42.3% of all…
bfinance's 2018 Asset Owner Survey is the firm's largest investor research study to date. It provides invaluable insights into some of the key challenges faced by asset owners around the world. Key themes examined include: entering new asset classes; improving diversification; active, passive and smart beta; ESG in practice…
While it’s easy to say that we will get less money in retirement than we had expected, it’s quite another thing to confront the harsh reality. Few people realise that this will come to a head when new pensioners are no longer mostly on defined benefits, but on defined contributions schemes. And this shift is imminent. It…
The idea that in one’s sixties it might be time to step out of work and retire into a life of leisure is relatively recent. But with more people living longer, expectations of retirement are being reshaped.
The 2018 Canadian Responsible Investment Trends Report reveals that responsible investment (RI) is continuing to experience rapid growth in Canada. Survey data collected from more than 100 asset managers, asset owners, and publicly-available sources indicates that Canadian investors increasingly view ESG factors as important…
Ageing populations continue to pose a challenge to governments worldwide, with policymakers struggling to balance the twin goals of delivering financial security for their retirees that is both adequate for the individual and sustainable for the economy. Now in its tenth year, the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index…
This guide was written by asset owners for asset owners. It provides insights into how managers can integrate climate change considerations into their investment processes.
The 11-page paper by Capital Dynamics presents a model for private equity which breaks down the PE equity performance into base factor and four different premiums. It illustrates how the model works using the PE portfolio of two North American pension funds.
A common argument made to expand the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is that it is cheap to administer. While many studies have cast doubt on this claim, why would a public pension plan be cheaper to administer than a private one? This paper examines the regulatory requirements among various types of public and private pension…
Pension fund sponsors use a discount rate to determine the value of assets they must set aside today to pay for promised benefits in the future. If the rate is too high, the assets are too meagre, and vice versa. Is there an optimum discount-rate rule that strikes the right balance?
Retired Professor Ross Macnaughton writes: "Imagine your big brother forced you to give him 10% of your income every year to invest, so you could retire comfortably. Then he invested it much more profitably than he ever dreamed. However, when you retired, he only gave you a fraction of what you deserved, claiming he was…
The Willis Towers Watson Pension Index has decreased in the fourth quarter primarily due to poor asset returns in the quarter. The net effect on our benchmark plan was a decrease of 4.2% in the Willis Towers Watson Pension Index (from 68.4 to 65.5) for the quarter.
This paper assesses whether long-term institutional investors help stabilise or destabilise Hong Kong and international stock markets. We use a novel dataset based on individual funds issued by insurance companies and pension funds worldwide. This allows us to examine each economic region in conjunction with the remaining…
Who owns and controls Canada's fossil-fuel sector, and therefore, who has both an interest in the sector’s continued growth and the economic power to shape its future? This paper explores further.
Today’s youngest and future generations face very high net fiscal burdens: higher than those of any other generations, especially those born from the mid-1950s to the 1990s. Generally speaking, babyboomers and their children fare well in this scenario, but the grandkids of babyboomers do not.
The most striking feature of Canada’s retirement system is arguably the large and growing gap between pensions in the public and private sectors. Eighty percent of public sector workers participate in defined benefit (DB) pension plans. Only ten percent of private sector workers can make the same claim. With the collapse of…
The Common Good Retirement Plan aims to strengthen retirement security of those working in Canada’s nonprofit and charitable sector, primarily through exploring the creation of a nationally portable, high-quality collective retirement plan for the sector. This paper advances the initiative by engaging with nonprofit sector…
