Canadian Pension Funds - Articles & White Papers

The global top 300 pension funds is an annual study. The research highlights high-level trends in the pension fund industry and provides information on how the characteristics of these top funds have changed. The top 20 pension funds made up 42% of total AUM in 2023

The Global Pension Assets Study estimates global pension fund assets across 22 major pension markets (the P22). These geographies now stand at US$55.7 trillion in pension assets and account for 69% of the GDP of these economies. The study, conducted by WTW and the Thinking Ahead Institute since the 1990s, includes an…

We thought it might be useful to explore how the asset allocation of UK pension funds - particularly their allocation to domestic and international equities - compares with other developed pension systems around the world. While comparing the asset allocation of ‘pensions’ in aggregate is a useful start, the wide range in…

Citing examples from Australia and India, the authors highlight opportunities for Canadian governments to monetize strategic assets and lure more investment from Canadian pension funds and others.

As the Canadian economy appears certain to transition to a lower interest-rate environment, our Multi-Asset Solutions Team examines how liability-driven investing can help defined benefit plans to preserve pension fund health.

The top 20 global pension funds with the largest dollar allocation to private equity have devoted a total of US$707.60 billion to the asset class so far in 2024. The big allocators prefer large, well-known firms. As of Oct. 22, Blackstone Inc. funds are the most popular, followed by TPG Capital LP, according to S&P…

The Canadian model is generally regarded is one of the most successful investment models. Historical performance shows good risk adjusted returns, outperforming passive investment strategies and other investment models. This performance is attributed to four specific characteristics: its governance, large allocation to…

The Global Pension Transparency Benchmark is a world first global standard for pension disclosure, bringing a focus to transparency in a bid to improve pension outcomes for members. The overall country and fund scores look at four factors: governance and organisation; performance; costs; and responsible investing, which are…

The WTW Pension Index has slightly increased in the third quarter due to positive asset returns, partially offset by an increase in accounting liability measures.

On a quarterly basis, the Group Annuity Purchase Team at WTW provides updates on the Canadian group annuity market.

Positive asset returns in most regions over the quarter were mostly offset by increased liability values as a result of lower discount rates in all regions.

I’m a great fan of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and often cite it as a wonderful example of how to add equities to trust fund investments. Yet, the CPP’s most recent annual investments report shows that the returns from even this much-lauded effort have fallen short of the plan’s main “Reference Portfolio” – an 85%/15% mix…

The Society of Actuaries Research Institute partnered with Optimity to survey retirees who use the Optimity wellness app on a series of inflation-related questions. In April 2024, twelve questions were posed to app users who self-identified as retired. Optimity app users are everyday consumers and have no specific company or…

The 35th edition of our Global Survey of Accounting Assumptions for Defined Benefit Plans comprises 1,100 companies in 47 countries and regions.

The UK government is exploring a Canada-inspired pension system to boost efficiency and infrastructure investment. We look at how this compares with the UK’s existing model.

We construct a novel database of pension reforms in 23 countries from 1970 to 2023. Based on a narrative identification and automated text filters we identify 1,828 legislated reform packages and determine whether those reforms improve or worsen the financial position of the current participants and the length of the phase‐…

This report examines the long-run impact of changing the early eligibility age (EEA) for public pensions in the Canadian context. The report concludes that decreasing the EEA tends to benefit workers with lower incomes, and reduce elderly poverty rates.

Building upon the IFoA’s study of the Royal Mail CDC Scheme, this contributed research paper delves into three types of intergenerational cross-subsidies within TBPs: implicit cost transfers, shifts in investment risk and temporal cross-subsidies.

We identify some of the most pressing issues facing the adoption of large language models (LLMs) in practical settings, and propose a research agenda to reach the next technological inflection point in generative AI.

The recent reforms to Australia’s foreign investment policy mirror what is happening in other jurisdictions around the world. Heightened geopolitical tensions mean when it comes to foreign direct investment (FDI), the talk is now all about “friend-shoring”, “near-shoring”and investing in “geopolitically close countries”.