(April 20, 2013) It’s the middle class, the backbone of modern societies, that stands to lose the most when retirement beckons, pension experts maintain. Most vulnerable are those now earning between $50,000 to $70,000, enough to finance a comfortable lifestyle during the working years, especially if two incomes are in play, but perhaps not enough to fund an equally secure retirement once all the current bills are paid. Those on the lower end of the wage scale, making about $40,000 or less, will reap the full benefit of public retirement income programs, like the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Old Age Security (OAS) and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), while high income earners will be able to max out savings vehicles like RRSPs. The middle bubble is where the pain is going to be felt, particularly among those in private sector jobs which offer no occupational pension, and it’s estimated as many as 65 per cent of Canadians don’t have a pension plan sponsored by an employer, retirement experts predict. more →

(April 15, 2013) Retirement income adequacy is a concern that transcends national borders and cultures, says Moshe Milevsky, finance professor at the Schulich School of Business at York University and noted retirement/pension expert. Circumstances vary from region to region, with national solutions and systems differing, but the challenges and objectives remain the same: providing as many citizens as possible with the means to be financially secure in retirement. The Dutch system, hailed as one of the best, provides a defined benefit based on career average earnings, but with a number of risk management measures built in, such as limiting the indexing of benefits when the funded status falls beneath a certain threshold. The Australian system is based on a national and mandatory defined contribution platform, while the Canadian Pension Plan and Social Security in the United States are more like traditional pension plans, in that they provide a defined benefit. more →

(April 8, 2013) It's a career that presents significant challenges, but also a high degree of personal satisfaction and reassurance for future financial security. Nursing also seems to run in Connie Positano’s family, a development that is met with considerable parental approval. “My mom had always wanted to be a nurse, so I was definitely interested in helping people. She was very happy. I was the second nurse in the family,” Positano told ARIA in a recent interview. Her early days were spent caring for elderly and palliative-care patients – and “doing a little bit of everything.” “I was doing direct patient care, and I really enjoyed my job – I always have. It was very rewarding for me and I really enjoyed working with the elderly and palliative-care patients. I really felt like I was making a difference.” more →

(March 22, 2013) The lack of retirement preparedness facing many Canadians threatens to herald in a new era of continuing to work during the ‘golden years’ and/or a significant drop in living standards, pension experts warn. As many as 65 per cent of Canadians won’t have access to an occupational pension in retirement, leaving them to depend on inadequate personal savings and government income programs: the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS), and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). Proffered solutions to what many are calling a retirement crisis at the doorstep include expanding the CPP, and the federal government’s Pooled Registered Pension Plan (PRPP). The former will take almost 50 years to be fully implemented, under one formula, and 20 under another proposal to usher in the expansion faster, while the PRPP has been called little more than a glorified group RSPP by its critics. more →

(March 13, 2013) If it’s true that you never really miss what you have until it’s gone, efforts to abandon or reduce traditional public pensions could come back to haunt employers as well as employees, according to a report from the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS). The report, The Great Recession: Pressures on Public Pensions, Employment Relations and Reforms, maintains that good pension provision attracts and keeps talent, and that abandoning the defined benefit (DB) model would result in a less committed workforce, spark increased turnover, and spike investment and administrative costs for employers and employees under an alternative approach, such as a defined contribution (DC) model. more →

Increasingly, pension experts are finding common ground with two fundamentally linked retirement factors: the value of the defined benefit (DB) model and expansion of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). Even though it is becoming increasingly scarce in the private sector, those in the know maintain the DB model is far superior to any other scheme, such as defined contribution (DC) and voluntary savings plans like RRSPs, if the goal is to secure adequate retirement income, a target moving further out of reach for a majority of Canadians. more →

Retired teacher Don Renwicke doesn’t like hearing chatter about switching public sector defined benefit pensions to a defined contribution model. In an interview with ARIA, Renwicke says teachers, and others with DB plans, began their careers with the understanding that a pension was part of an overall remuneration package, and that through regular payroll deductions they were paying now so that they could collect later in retirement. more →

It’s going to take more than a modest, and gradual, bump to Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits to improve the income prospects of those now coming up on the traditional retirement years, says noted pension expert Michael Wolfson. Rather, it will take some out-of-the-box thinking and bold leadership to produce a retirement fix sooner than later, he suggests, pointing out that current discussions about a CPP expansion propose solutions that will be nearly a half century in the making. more →

When Richmond Hill fire captain Eric Taverner was a young man just starting out in the field of endeavour that was to become his life’s work, he recalls a bit of wisdom handed down from his first fire chief. Joining the department as a dispatcher, the then 21-year-old chaffed at the regular deductions taken at the time from his pay as pension contributions. Making less than $14,000 a year at the time, and seeing retirement as a concept so far down the road as to be meaningless, he asked if he had to continue with the deductions. more →

Expanding the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is an important step to providing greater retirement security, but it’s not a panacea for what ails Canada’s retirement system right now, says the author of a 2010 paper evaluating the merits of an enhanced CPP. Rather, a bigger and better CPP would benefit younger Canadians and not those at or near retirement’s door, says Jonathan Rhys Kesselman, author of ‘Expanding Canada Pension Plan Retirement Benefits: Assessing Big CPP Proposals.’ more →

(May 17, 2017) Strong investment returns of 10.1 per cent have boosted the assets of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to $183 billion, the Globe and Mail reports. “The CPPIB’s overall returns were typical for a Canadian pension plan last y...more →

(May 16, 2013) It’s goes without saying that at a time when the household debt to income ratio is at a record 165 per cent, debt is having an impact on people’s ability to save for retirement. According to the Wall Street Journal, we in Canada “...more →

(May 16, 2013) Canadian pension funds are able, thanks to their scale and professional investment management, to invest in things that the average retirement saver can’t. One such asset class, reports Barry Critchley in the National Post, is real es...more →

(May 16, 2013) In an opinion piece published in Benefits Canada, the president of Municipal Retirees Organization Ontario takes issue with charges “by those in the anti-DB camp” that public pension plan shortfalls will have to be made up by taxpaye...more →

(May 15, 2013) Writing in her Hill Times blog, reprinted on the Rabble.ca website, Green Party leader Elizabeth May notes that today’s Canadian seniors have “different issues and challenges than in our grandparents’ day.” And while it is great...more →

(May 15, 2013) Many Canadians who want to save more for their retirement – often because of a lack of a good pension plan at work – have a formidable adversary: debt. Writing in the Edmonton Journal, Ray Turchansky reports on a new book by Winnipe...more →

(May 15, 2013) The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has announced that Ron Mock will become president and CEO of OTPP effective Jan. 1, 2014, reports Shanny Basar of Dow Jones. "Mock joined the scheme in 2001 as director of alternative investments. In...more →

(May 14, 2013) While today’s seniors – many of whom received defined benefit pensions – are generally coping well in retirement, many observers fear that senior poverty may re-emerge in the future. Conservative Sen. Hugh Segal feels the federal ...more →

(May 14, 2013) Article after article urges Canadians to start saving for retirement while they are young. Yet, according to a story by Gail Johnson in the Pay Day blog on Yahoo! Finance Canada, student debt is on the rise – a roadblock to significan...more →