June 2020
04Jun

Canada. Alberta public sector pension plan fund falls $3.4B in quarter, pointing to AIMCo losses

An Alberta public sector pension plan says its fund dropped by $3.4 billion — or 6.5 per cent — in the first quarter of the year, calling it an "extremely difficult" period for investors due to COVID-19's impact on financial markets. But the Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP), which has 275,000 members, is also pointing to losses at the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), its mandatory investment manager under provincial legislation. LAPP says total asset losses...

June 4, 2020
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May 2020
20May

Canada. How are pension plan sponsors’ fiduciary duties evolving in the time of coronavirus?

While the coronavirus pandemic certainly doesn’t change pension plan sponsors’ fundamental fiduciary duty to their plan members, the crisis is creating circumstances that will test how that responsibility manifests. Fiduciary duty arises when one party has a certain vulnerability in respect to another party, said Kenneth Burns, partner at Lawson Lundell LLP, in a webinar roundtable hosted by the Association of Canadian Pension Management on Thursday. In a pension context, plan sponsors have a fiduciary duty to their members...

May 20, 2020
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08May

Pandemic Blots One Year’s Worth of Gains from Canadian Plans

The coronavirus pandemic has wiped about a year’s worth of gains from Canadian pension plans, BNY Mellon said Monday. Corporate, public, and university retirement funds lost a median 7.23% in the first quarter ending in March, according to the financial services firm. Over the past 12 months, marked by strong advances up until 2020, that represented a 1.13% loss. But pensions overall still gained about 7.24% annually over the past decade. Results from the report were drawn from...

May 8, 2020
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01May

Canada. Pension plan regulatory relief and COVID-19 – additional measures announced

In our most recent posts, we highlighted some of the regulatory relief available to administrators of Ontario registered pension plans and plans registered in jurisdictions other than Ontario as a result of COVID-19. In this post, we highlight additional relief measures that have been announced for administrators and sponsors of registered pension plans, including the announcement of significant funding relief for sponsors of federally regulated defined benefit registered pension plans. Federal On April 15, 2020, the federal government announced...

May 1, 2020
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April 2020

17Apr

Canada’s Pension Funds Prepare for Post-Virus World

Ontario Municipal Employment Retirement System has put a team in place to analyze what the world will look like in the post-pandemic era. The C$109 billion ($77 billion) pension fund is weighing everything from what it’ll look like when people go back to work to how different companies in its portfolio will fare, Blake Hutcheson said in a Canadian Club of Toronto virtual roundtable. “Sadly, some of our companies won’t make it, it’s just a fact,” said Hutcheson, who...

April 17, 2020
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15Apr

Canada. The coronavirus has created a tremendous financial opportunity for workers with a pension

Unique opportunities sometimes come in extreme times. The one detailed below on commuting the value of your pension won’t be an option for many, but for those with the ability to take advantage, it could meaningfully improve their retirement finances for years to come. Read also Canada’s Pension Funds Prepare for Post-Virus World This opportunity is based on three fundamental facts First, the current or commuted value of your pension is much higher when interest rates on 5 Year Canadian Bonds are...

April 15, 2020
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02Apr

Financial market volatility brings Canadian pension health to lowest level in more than three years

With global equity markets and bond yields plummeting as the coronavirus spreads throughout the world, the solvency positions of Canadian defined benefit pension plans declined by more than 13 percentage points from Q4 2019, representing the lowest level of financial health since November 2016 , according to the first-quarter Median Solvency Ratio Survey by Aon plc (AON), the leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement, and health solutions. "March might have been the...

April 2, 2020
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March 2020

31Mar

Canadian pension scheme CDPQ to help coronavirus-hit firms with C$4 billion fund

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), one of Canada's biggest state pension investors, said on Monday it would create a C$4 billion fund to support companies in Québec adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Read also Financial market volatility brings Canadian pension health to lowest level in more than three years The fund would be used to address liquidity needs of companies, whether or not in CDPQ's portfolio, that meet certain criteria, including being profitable before the crisis,...

March 31, 2020
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18Mar

How are Canadian pension plans responding to coronavirus?

Across the country, public pension plans are releasing statements to assure members that their defined benefit pensions are secure and that they’re taking measures to protect the health and safety of their own staff. The Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan said it regularly tests operations and will continue to make pension payments. “We are well prepared and feel confident your pensions will be paid on time,” it wrote in a statement. “Although our response times to...

March 18, 2020
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February 2020

21Feb

Canadian pension fund Caisse posts 10.4% return in 2019

Canada's second-biggest pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) on Thursday reported average weighted returns of 10.4% in 2019, as strength in its equities portfolio offset underperformance in real estate holdings. The overall annualized returns over five and 10 years were 8.1% and 9.2% respectively, the fund said in a statement. Total assets rose to C$340 billion ($256.8 billion) as of Dec. 31, from C$310 billion a year earlier. The Caisse's real estate portfolio posted a...

February 21, 2020
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