Financial health of Canadian defined-benefit pension plans hits all-time quarterly high in Q3 2018

Rising bond yields and a continuing strong U.S. equity market helped boost the health of Canadian defined benefit pension plans to the highest level ever recorded, according to the latest quarterly Median Solvency Ratio from Aon, a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions.
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“Aon has been measuring median solvency for the better part of two decades now, and we have never seen quarterly levels this high,” said William da Silva, Senior Partner and Retirement Practice Director at Aon. “That’s really good news, but it also presents a great opportunity for pension plan sponsors to ask themselves some tough questions about risk. For instance: Is their asset strategy optimized based on new funding rules in several jurisdictions? Can risk be further managed by making strategic contributions? And with funded status in such a healthy place, have sponsors taken a new look at plan settlement to further their strategies? In short, the last quarter of this year can and should be the time to truly understand how the risk of their programs have changed and how their strategy may need to change as well.”

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