Perspectives On Pensions

Do employees and employers truly understand what parity means when to comes to pensions, or are they likely to filter out outdated myths or noises about parity, until it is too late to make strategic changes? Achieving parity means that pensions have to be adequately funded, and that they have to be adverse to controllable […]

The idea of pension parity is that pensions not only have to be valuable, but they also have to be fair and equitable, and, at the same time, they have to decrease risk exposure to members. Parity is likely to be a key point of discussion when it comes to planning for 2020, and managers […]

It’s all too common for pension trustees to worry that they’re not doing their jobs. In fact, research completed this year has shown that when asked what makes it difficult for them to plan for the future of their businesses, pension trustees regularly cite issues such as a lack of time, resources, knowledge and information. […]

Research conducted this year in the UK shows that most Boards of Trustees rate their own effectiveness highly, and perhaps much more highly than they should, given the fact that they rarely actually internally review that effectiveness with accurate metrics. In fact, as the International Centre for Pension Management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman […]

We all know how fast technology moves. Even so, pensions are all about long term planning. FinTech options are out there, but should we even consider them? In the future, end-to-end digital processes will help drive up pension opportunities for companies and pension investors alike, but, even so, it’s always going to be necessary to […]

We need to pay attention to FinTech. According to new findings from global research led by the World Bank and the International Organization of Securities Commissions, technological solutions for pension planning may be able to provide us with deeper data, better engagement and more successful plans for companies and pension investors alike. Technology can help […]

Adaptation to the future of work is likely a necessary shift for most organizations. Organizations will need to be able to position themselves strategically in newly competitive labour markets, because, more and more, demand for skilled employees is on the rise. Workers are becoming more choosy, especially when they know that there are a range […]

In order for organizations to attract the right talent and keep them for the right length of time, pension decision making processes need to be future proof. Companies need to adapt to the future expectations that employees have for their workforces. The challenge is that, given what researchers now know about the next generation of […]

Pensions, and people, need to be more flexible and reflexive if they are going to work in a collective agreement environment, but many managers and union leaders believe that this just isn’t possible. While these relationships can be very entrenched, it is possible to nudge large scale private and public sector organizations towards a new […]

Connecting and building good relationships between organizations, unions and their leaders is essential to pension planning, and yet seems daunting to many. This is especially true when it comes to money and retirement, because these are long term agreements that affect people’s futures. That’s because all organizations are human, social entities, and these human qualities […]

Legal finagling often leaves both workers and organizational leaders worse off over the long term. The complex realities facing corporate decision makers, will often necessitate making decisions that have potential impacts on many stakeholders, all of which have unique needs and protections in the law, and some of which will contradict one another. As well, […]

The law is challenging to navigate when it comes to pension management, but why shifting towards leadership allows businesses to leverage the law in a positive way. Rational choice theory shows us that every business leader will think through many different options before deciding on a best course of action, which will either increase their […]

Actuaries are number crunchers, and they’re wonderful at achieving that goal. Their aim is to predict what might happen in the future so that businesses can decrease their risk when they invest in pension plans. That’s helpful, no matter where you work. That being said, actuarial tables only present us with a solution that is […]

Many business and organizational leaders are dissatisfied with the current limitations of risk management practices, and pensions are not exempt from this worry. But just like an engineer building a bridge using only statistics needs to consider what happens in the case of an earthquake, rather than just what happens during the average rush hour, […]

Understanding the psychology of money will help leaders understand their employees better, and therefore better appreciate what it takes to create a secure future in the workplace. That’s simple, right? More money equals more employee engagement and value, or at least a higher level of commitment to staying the long term, which pays off in […]

People need a secure financial future, and pensions are a major touchstone when it comes to planning for the years after retirement. It seems to be a simple equation: provide people with a secure source of income and they’ll be happier and more productive at work, knowing that most of their worries will be taken […]

The social and economic context of aging affects how we live, how much we choose to save, and what we can expect from our pensions.

A recent CIBC poll suggests that 32 per cent of Canadians between 45 and 64 have nothing saved for retirement, and 53 per cent of Canadians say they don’t actually know if they are saving enough at all.

In order to build a prosperous future for people, business and society to compete and to win, we’ve decided that leadership has to be at the centre of our decision-making process.

After a few years of intensive shifts that have made pension markets more volatile than many would have liked, the year ahead will be an awakening after the reckoning of 2018—a time for pension plans to look at opportunities and not just at surmounting challenges.