The Essential Service of Transit
Actuarial Solutions
by Joe Nunes
1M ago
No one argues that our police and firefighters are essential to society.  The good news is that when you are essential, you are generally well compensated and often organize your employment in a unionized environment which helps ensure that you are treated fairly .  The bad news is that when you are essential you lose the right to go on strike.  This is a trade-off that everyone hopes is fair in the circumstances.  Arbitrators are keenly aware that forgoing the right to strike takes away an important feature of collective bargaining and as a result arbitrators are very att ..read more
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Big Pharma, Big Food, and the Health Care Crisis Ahead
Actuarial Solutions
by Joe Nunes
2M ago
Do you remember the drug company scandal from a few years back?  You can be forgiven if you can’t exactly remember.  But if I asked you if you remember the OxyContin scandal my guess is you probably remember now.  That awful story bankrupted pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma and there is still an open question as to whether members of the majority shareholding Sackler family can be held personally liable in their role ‘pushing’ addictive drugs. I was reminded of this story when I was reading a recent article in Benefits Canada about the new wonder drug, Ozempic.  If you ..read more
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Decumulation:  Lifetime Pension Pools
Actuarial Solutions
by Joe Nunes
2M ago
School was never my thing, but I have always had a curiosity about how things work.  Long after school ended for me I discovered that reading is the road to satisfying my curiosity and I spend several hours a day reading all sorts of things – partly because my ADD doesn’t make it easy to focus on one subject for a long period of time and partly because I am interested in a wide range of subjects beyond just ‘DB pensions’ which is largely how I have made my living and focused my professional practice. When it comes to academic papers, I like the easy ones.  When I encounter one with ..read more
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Looking Back at 2023 and Looking Ahead in 2024
Actuarial Solutions
by Dean Newell
3M ago
Happy New Year!  With 2023 behind us, and 2024 ahead of us, it’s time to look at what happened to defined benefit pension plans last year, and to prognosticate on what lies ahead for next year. What Happened in 2023 As I look back at my commentary from last year, I had two main concerns for 2023: whether inflation could be tamed, and whether the succession of interest rate hikes would lead to a recession or if a ‘soft landing’ could be achieved.  A year later, it seems like we have some answers to these questions.  First, inflation trended lower throughout most of 2023, and wit ..read more
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Finding Happiness
Actuarial Solutions
by Joe Nunes
3M ago
“I understand about indecision But I don’t care if I get behind People livin’ in competition All I want is to have my peace of mind” Boston The secret to my success is no big secret to the people in my life.  My strategy has been to surround myself with the smartest people willing to put up with me and who don’t feel the need to make me feel dumb.  My decision-making process is to ask all the smart people what they think and then synthesize the best answer.  I am also good at building consensus around decisions, so that we are all on board rowing in the same direction. Unfortun ..read more
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Another Quarter, Another FSRA Pension eBlast
Actuarial Solutions
by Jason Vary
4M ago
Last month the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) issued their quarterly Pension eBlast and it’s filed with all sorts of interesting news.  Here’s what you need to know. (Revised) Proposed Guidance for Pension Plan Amendments Some of you may recall that last year FSRA issued Proposed Guidance on Pension Plan Amendments.  Apparently, they received a lot of feedback and they’ve revisited some of their thinking with respect to retroactive plan amendments.  The revised guidance is now open for a second consultation, and they are accepting more feedback until ..read more
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Happy Anniversary Kyle
Actuarial Solutions
by Joe Nunes
4M ago
Yesterday I had lunch with my pal Kyle who helps me and Paula with our retirement savings – it was 10 years to the day since Paula and I opened our account with his team to help navigate our journey from work to retirement.  It is hard to judge success or failure on a single metric, but the 10-year return is 7.23% which is slightly greater than the target of 7% per annum that I set a decade ago. As I have said before, I am fairly confident that I have saved enough for retirement and I am working simply because I love my work.  With that said, in a DC world, it is good to periodicall ..read more
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Deal Done – Auto Workers
Actuarial Solutions
by Joe Nunes
5M ago
Living in Windsor I am a little more sensitive to what goes on in the auto industry than I was when I was living in Toronto.  In case readers missed the news, in the past few weeks Unifor, the union representing most auto workers, reached labour deals with Ford and GM.  I expect that Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) will not be far behind. My interest in the story usually ends when the deal is made – a sigh of relief that my small town won’t be thrown into chaos with weeks or months of strikes or lockouts.  This time around however, there are some changes in pensions that warrant ..read more
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The Alberta Pension Plan
Actuarial Solutions
by Joe Nunes
6M ago
I got a call on Thursday asking me what I thought of the report out of Alberta examining the idea of that province bailing out on the Canada Pension Plan and starting its own Alberta Pension Plan. At that time, I was packing for a long weekend celebrating my thirtieth wedding anniversary – hard to believe she has kept me around this long.   Of course, I dropped everything to read the report and I had an interview while we were in-transit to the airport – like I said, hard to believe she has kept me around this long. I told the interviewer that the report was an actuarial gold mine a ..read more
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Highlights from FSRA’s Latest Pension eBlast
Actuarial Solutions
by Jason Vary
7M ago
Last month the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) issued their quarterly Pension eBlast.  Here’s what you need to know from their recent eBlasts. Pension Plans are Very Healthy The good news keeps rolling for Ontario’s defined benefit pension plans. FSRA estimates that the median solvency ratio is at an all-time high of 116% as at June 30, 2023, plus only about 2% of plans are below 85% solvency funded.  The following graph, taken from FSRA’s latest report, shows the progression of the median solvency ratios over the past decade.  How does your pension pl ..read more
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