Articles
Published By: TD Asset Management Inc. | February 18, 2020
The low volatility anomaly had been observed and documented more than 40 years ago, but with the strong equity markets in the 1980s and 19902, few asset managers dared exploit that academic evidence. That changed in 2009 when TD Asset Management launched its first low vol. This year, it marks its 10th year of offering these products.
Published By: Benefits Alliance | February 10, 2020
Almost 20 years have passed since private drug plans in Canada first experienced claims for high cost biologic drugs. They quickly came to represent a sea-change in both medical practice (due to their effectiveness) and drug plan management (due to their costs). The Benefits Alliance Group invited some of its members to participate in an educational session and roundtable discussion on key issues in drug plan management for high-cost drugs, with a focus on biologics and biosimilars.
Published By: Iain Campbell of Baillie Gifford. | January 17, 2020
Investors today need to be cognizant of the growing movement to short-termism, says Iain Campbell, investment manager at Baillie Gifford. In ‘Avoiding Noise Reduces Short-Term Thinking (create a link here),’ he says the market is in part to blame because of its hyperactivity where money managers are expected to outperform constantly.
Published By: Tyler Mordy | October 29, 2019
I first travelled to China in 1993 (full disclosure: I was a trumpet nerd on tour with my school’s concert band). Back then, it was a blur of bulldozers, a dizzying amount of people and some ill-timed food poisoning … serious culture shock for a small-town kid from British Columbia.
Published By: Randy Bauslaugh | October 3, 2019
My Experience with a Contingent Pension Plan and the Lessons Learned.
By: Randy Bauslaugh
For many years, I have had the privilege of being legal counsel to the board of trustees of a multiemployer pension plan (MEPP) established in 1972. The employers are Canadian members of an association of schools in the US and Canada. The Canadian plan is modelled on the defined-benefit (DB) MEPP established in 1948 by the school association for US schools and their employees. Both plans are administered by joint boards of trustees, one in Canada, and one in the US. The boards include representatives of participating employers and employees.
Authored By: Peter Gorham & Nichola Peterson | Date: August 23, 2019
In our experience, most people who are given a choice of taking their pension or transferring the commuted value to personal locked-in RRSP will take the transfer. It’s a large amount of money ‒ maybe larger than anything else you have received before ‒ and it just seems that much money has to be better than a monthly pension income. But is it?
Read MoreAuthored By: Heather Haslam | Date: August 14, 2019
It’s no secret that employee engagement is critical to an organization’s success. When employees are engaged, turnover is lower, productivity is higher, and, most importantly, people are happier.
ADP wanted to take a deeper dive into this issue to measure levels of engagement and identify what conditions attract and retain workers through a global study.
Authored By: Paula Glick | Date: July 18, 2019
Last month, on June 14th, the Canadian Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance released its final report, ‘Mobilizing Finance for Sustainable Growth.’ The panel was appointed by Canada’s minister of the environment and climate change, Catherine McKenna, and minister of finance, Bill Morneau. The report observes that the sobering reality of climate change is upon us and argues that the finance community must play a critical role in supporting the transition to a low carbon economy.
Read MoreAuthored By: Christian Hanson | Date: June 3, 2019
As a former professional hockey player, I’ve had many conversations over the years with teammates about what the future may hold. The conversations always included some variation of the following bottom line: ‘What am I going to do when I am done playing? I’ll figure it out when the time comes.’
Read MoreAuthored By: Peter Gorham and Nichola Peterson | Date: May 24, 2019
(An abridged version of this article appears in the May issue of Benefits and Pensions Monitor.)
You may start to receive your Canada Pension Plan1 (CPP) retirement benefits any time between ages 60 and 70. You may start to receive your Old Age Security (OAS) benefits any time between ages 65 and 70. But when is the optimal age to start?