Defined benefit pension plans aren’t just better for Canadian workers, but for the country’s economy in general, according to a new study by the Canadian Public Pension Leadership Council. Statistics Canada data from 2018 showed 37.5 per cent of Canadian workers have some type of pension or retirement savings plan through their workplace, and 25.2 per cent have a DB plan. Far more (88 per cent) employees in the public sector participate in some form of retirement savings plan compared to the private sector [...]

Any modifications to federal pension legislation should encourage plan sponsors to continue offering defined benefit pension plans, while helping them fulfil their pension promises to plan members, according to the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. “Fulfilling pension promises is especially important for those plan members who can least afford the risk of benefit reductions, such as those with a modest monthly pension and those who are at an age where pension losses cannot easily be made up with new savings,” wrote the CIA in [...]

A strong US equity market and rising bond yields helped boost the funded status of Canadian defined benefit pension plans to levels not seen in nearly two decades, according to reports from consulting firm Mercer and professional services firm Aon. At the end of the third quarter, the solvency position of Canadian defined benefit pension plans climbed to 112%, up from 107% at the end of the previous quarter—its highest level since November 2000, according to the Mercer Pension Health Index, [...]

In the third quarter of 2018, Canadian defined benefit pension plans reached their highest solvency ratio of any quarter since November 2000, according to Mercer’s latest pension health index. Representing a hypothetical plan, the index reached a 112 per cent solvency level as of Sept. 28, 2018, up from 107 per cent at the ned of the previous quarter. As well, more than 60 per cent of plans are now fully funded and only five per cent stand at a [...]

Canadian defined benefit plans posted a median return of 4.29 per cent in the last quarter of 2017, a marked improvement compared to the median return of 0.55 per cent in the third quarter of the year, according to a report by BNY Mellon Asset Management Canada Ltd. The firm’s tracking service, which consists of 88 Canadian corporate, public and university pension plans, showed a one-year median return of 9.83 per cent in its latest report. It found Canadian university plans had the [...]

The median solvency ratio for Canadian defined benefit plans rose to 100.7 per cent in October as equity markets continued to rally, according to Aon Hewitt’s monthly median solvency ratio survey. The figure is 1.4 percentage points higher than the beginning of October and the highest level since the survey recorded 102 per cent in 2002. Of surveyed plans, 51.5 per cent were more than fully funded as of Nov. 1, 2017, up 3.8 percentage points from the previous month. […]