pension & investment awards 2011 - benefits canada.com...dec 12, 2011 · benefitscanada •...

12 / December 2011 • BenefitsCanada BenefitsCanada • December 2011 / 13

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am Thank YouThank You To our sponsors

Leading pension pLan sponsor awardRecognizes an individual deemed by his or her peers to have had a significant impact on the pension industry in terms of leadership and innovation. Candidates were judged on innovation, leadership and overall impact.

Winner: Terri Troy, Halifax Regional Municipality Pension Plan

Note: These awards were judged by an independent panel from Benefits Canada's Pension & Investment Editorial Advisory Board: Robert Baillie, Northern Trust; Danielle Donadio, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan; Duane Green, Franklin Templeton Institutional; Zaheed Jiwani, Greystone Managed Investments; Joan Johannson, BMO GRS; Larry Ketchabaw, Unisource Canada; Anita Lieberman, BMO GRS; Ian Markham, Towers Watson; Blair Richards, Halifax Port ILA/HEA Pension Plan; Colin Ripsman, Phillips, Hager & North.

Money Manager Awards

FasTesT growing Money Manager awardsRecognize the top money managers that were the fastest growing in terms of the percentage growth of their Canadian pension assets under management.

Winners: <$1.0 Billion: Wise Capital Management Inc.

$1.0 Billion to $10.0 Billion: MFS Investment Management

>$10.0 Billion: Brookfield Asset Management Inc.

Top Cap invesTMenT Manager awardRecognizes the top money manager in terms of Canadian CAP assets under management.

Winner: McLean Budden Ltd.

FasTesT growing endowMenT & FoundaTion asseTs Money Manager awardsRecognize the top money managers that were the fastest growing in terms of the percentage growth of their endowment and foundation assets under management.

Winners: <$1.0 Billion: CI Institutional Asset Management (a division of CI Investments Inc.)

$1.0 Billion+: Connor Clark & Lunn Financial Group

FasTesT CLiMbing Top 40 Money Manager award Recognizes the money manager that has moved the most spots in the Top 40 ranking compared with last year.

Winner: CIBC Global Asset Management Inc.

Note: These awards are based on data reported to the Canadian Institutional Investment Network in the 2011 Top 40 Money Managers Survey.

More than 200 people attended the 2011 Pension & Investment Awards, designed to honour the success and achievements of exceptional Canadian plan sponsors and individuals. Held on Nov. 8, 2011, at Le Meridien King Edward Hotel in Toronto, the

gala included cocktails, a formal dinner and an awards presentation to celebrate those who have demonstrated leadership and innovation—and made a real difference—in the pension industry.

We also recognized the Top 40 Money Managers (highlighted in our November issue) and other leading firms with several Money Manager Awards.

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and finalists!

eMpLoyer awardRecognizes a plan sponsor that has demonstrated leadership and innovation in pension investment, plan design, administration and/or governance and that has positively affected the retirement security of Canadians. Candidates were judged on innovation, leadership and impact.

Winner: Workplace Safety and Insurance Board

Finalists: Ceridian Canada Ltd. • Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd. • The Miller Group

CoMMuniCaTion award (<1,000 employees)Recognizes a plan sponsor that has developed innovative and effective strategies for communicating pension plans and/or investments to employees. Candidates were judged on innovation, clarity, ease of use, effective use of media and impact on employees.

Winner: Forest City Fire Protection Ltd. (Forest City Fire Protection & Security)

Finalists: OMERS Education and Training Team • Urban Systems Ltd.

CoMMuniCaTion award (1,000+ employees)Recognizes a plan sponsor that has developed innovative and effective strategies for communicating pension plans and/or investments to employees. Candidates were judged on innovation, clarity, ease of use, effective use of media and impact on employees.

Winner: Alberta Health Services

Finalists: Public Employees Pension Plan • Technicolor • Western Financial Group Inc.

LiFeTiMe aChieveMenT awardRecognizes an individual who has spent his or her career demonstrating innovation and leadership in the pension industry and who has positively affected the retirement security of Canadians. Candidates were judged on innovation, leadership, most significant contribution and overall impact.

Winner: John Crocker

Finalists: Jennifer Brown • Don Ezra

sTraTegiC parTnership awardRecognizes a plan sponsor that has worked with a supporting organization to develop an innovative and effective pension initiative. Candidates were judged on innovation, effectiveness and overall impact.

Winner: Niagara Casinos and Sun Life Financial

Benefits Canada AwardsBenefits Canada Awards Money Manager Awards

Pension & investment AwArds 2011

BenefitsCanada • December 2011 / 15


ntil 2007, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) was a conventional 60/40 equities/bonds DB plan, says John Crocker, president and CEO, and winner of Benefits Canada’s Pension & Investment Lifetime Achievement award. While the

fund enjoyed a surplus in the late ’90s, the 2000/01 tech crash resulted in a deficit. “That got us on a journey of thinking,” says Crocker.

That thinking, led by Crocker, got HOOPP to approach its board in 2007 to change the fund’s asset mix, because there was too much risk in the 60/40 split relative to the fund’s liabilities. In October of that year, HOOPP sold about $6 billion of equities and invested it into the bond market. The plan’s asset mix is now roughly 46/54.

Although HOOPP’s change to liability driven investing (LDI) made no difference in 2007, in 2008, the year of the financial crisis, “the wheels fell off in Q4, and then it was payday for us,” says Crocker. HOOPP lost 11.97% that year. (Many of the larger pension plans were down an average of about 18%.) But in 2009, HOOPP made more than 15.18%, and as of the end of 2010, it is 101% funded.

Under Crocker’s leadership, HOOPP also replaced its technology platform in 2010. The new investment management technology has enabled the fund to pursue its LDI strategy; it has also replaced many manual processes, speeded up trading and opened up new investment options. “Having that capability, that powerful system, enables us to do very complex derivative strategies [with] the appropriate level of monitoring governance and management,” he says.

Crocker is also a strong advocate for the importance of the DB model in providing adequate income in retirement. He has addressed this topic at conferences and has spoken out on it through the media, interviews, events and discussions with government. And HOOPP has won three awards for its advocacy efforts.

“There’s a huge amount of misinformation out there as to the real cost of retirement and the best vehicles to retire,” he says. “Unbiased research would demonstrate that a large well-governed, transparent pension plan with good scale is the best way to turn an earnings dollar into a retirement dollar.”

But even though adequate income is important, the route to retirement is not all work. Crocker also leads HOOPP in support of work/life balance. (He goes to the gym from 11 a.m. to noon daily.) “My philosophy is, I expect people to work hard, but I don’t send emails at three in the morning or on Saturday night.”

But Crocker is quick to point out that he’s not the only one who deserves credit for HOOPP’s accomplishments. “If everything goes well, I get the credit. If everything goes badly, I take the blame. The reality is, there are a lot of smart people in the organization,” he says, pointing to incoming CEO Jim Keohane (who will be succeeding Crocker when he retires on December 31 this year) and the broad group of people in other parts of the organization.

As of January 1, Crocker will have more time to travel and to focus on his involvement with the United Way. However, his days likely won’t all be filled with wanderlust and philanthropy. Crocker still believes in the cause: retirement income adequacy. “If I can play a positive role in that, I’d be happy to.”

Brooke Smith is managing editor of Benefits Canada.

[email protected]

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Lifetime Achievement AwardJohn Crocker’s legacy highlights the importance of providing sufficient retirement income By Brooke Smith

16 / December 2011 • BenefitsCanada


hile the 2008 financial crisis left many pension plans questioning their investment strategies, the

Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) began that process before the markets fell.

One year prior to the crisis, WSIB’s investment committee of the board of directors expressed concern that the plan was too highly invested in

equities—an allocation that was creating an undesirable level of fund volatility.

“Our research found that our large allocation of equities in the investment strategy at the time would drive more than 90% of the volatility of the total portfolio,” explains John Denham, WSIB’s chief investment officer. “While we believe equities are expected to deliver over the long run, the level of expected volatility from our allocation at that time was quite high.”

At the committee’s request, the investment staff began an 18-month process to create a revised strategic investment plan that would reduce the risk from high equity exposure while maintaining return expectations.

In 2009, WSIB began to roll out its new diversification strategy and started what Denham calls “a transformative journey.”

Public equities had accounted for 65% of WSIB’s investments. But with its new focus on minimizing volatility, WSIB began to diversify into investments in real estate, infrastructure and other market alternatives such as hedge funds and risk parity strategies (which focus on allocation of risk rather than allocation of capital).

Today, the percentage of equities has dropped below 50%, and the fund has realized returns of 9.6% in 2010 and 2.8% over the first half of 2011 in the face of turmoil in global markets. “Our new strategy has served us well during these volatile markets,” Denham explains. “Real estate, infrastructure and other market alternatives that we have diversified into have held up better than public equities—evidence that WSIB’s diversification plan is showing signs of working as we expected.”

However, Denham also stresses that while WSIB’s recent results have been positive, the board is taking a patient approach and prefers to focus on long-term results rather than short-term successes. This attitude is reflected in WSIB’s slow and steady strategic planning: it is currently halfway through the asset diversification process.

“We are in Year 3 of the implementation of this plan, and it is bearing fruit,” says Denham. “However, we will continue to work to implement this diversification effort over the next two to three years.” WSIB projects that by 2015, equities will have dropped from 65% to below 40% of its asset mix, and real estate and infrastructure will be boosted from 5% and 0%, respectively, to 15% each.

In addition to its diversification strategy, WSIB has put in place other measures for mitigating risk and increasing efficiencies, including governance policies, counterparty assessments and vendor management strategies. Its asset pooling program—created in 2009 in an effort to better administer WSIB’s three different pools of funds (the insurance fund, the loss of retirement income fund and the pension fund)—has helped to resolve the complex administrative challenges of managing funds of varying sizes with different objectives.

“The focus and rigour of the investment staff is infectious, and their activities encourage all of the industry players they interact with to seek similar levels of excellence,” noted Russell Investments, which nominated WSIB for this award. “The Canadian—and global—pension industry is all the better for the tireless efforts of WSIB.”

Tammy Burns is associate editor of BenefitsCanada.com.

[email protected]

Employer AwardWSIB takes a measured approach to managing volatility By Tammy Burns

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s a small, privately owned company operating in a construction industry dominated by large multinational organizations, Forest City Fire Protection & Security is always on the hunt for solutions to give it a competitive edge. So when its benefits provider, The Steele Group, approached

the team in early 2010 with a demo of an online HR tool, Forest City saw an opportunity.

That tool, called FinancialiQ, was initially focused on offering group savings-based online learning to employees. But according to John Allen, chief financial officer with London, Ont.-based Forest City, the management team realized this technology could become an all-purpose education and information hub for the company. “The potential it had way surpassed what they were explaining. So I brought it to our management team, and we endorsed it and proceeded with it.”

Over the next several months, Mike Caskanette, manager of communications and development with Forest City, worked closely with The Steele Group to customize the program so that it met as many of Forest City’s needs as possible. As a fire sprinkler design, installation and service firm with 200 employees located in four Ontario cities—approximately 60% of whom are based in the field with limited access to computers on a regular basis—the program needed to be accessible from anywhere. And it needed to include in-depth information on all of Forest City’s HR initiatives.

Eventually, FinancialiQ became GatewayiQ. The program, launched in early 2011, includes more than 100 videos and 100 pages of information organized into learning modules to help employees understand benefits such as the retirement savings opportunities offered through the company’s group RRSP and deferred profit sharing program.

“The cost of trying to get everyone together for educational purposes—either in their own office locations or as a team—was very expensive. Being able to do things electronically will significantly decrease our costs and will actually increase the amount of education and training [we can offer],” says Allen, who notes that the cost of delivering the learning programs through GatewayiQ is equivalent to less than 0.2% of Forest City’s wages annually.

In addition to the training modules, GatewayiQ gives employees easy access to statements that show how much they are saving for retirement and information on how to develop a financial plan. Employees also have the opportunity to meet with a financial planner every five years to work through their savings goals.

The system tracks which employees use GatewayiQ—and how, when and where—and can present that data broken down by employee division and other demographics. While 75% of employees used GatewayiQ in the first three months following its launch, Allen classifies the uptake so far as “slow.” However, in a few months, the company plans to introduce an incentive program that will give employees points for completing modules, which they can then exchange for rewards such as Tim Hortons gift cards—a strategy they are confident will raise awareness of and interest in the system.

Allen says Forest City management recognizes the role that good communication and learning opportunities play in attracting and retaining key talent, especially for a small organization. “It’s extremely important for us to be different. Our greatest strength is our people, and we need to continually let our staff know this.”

Neil Faba is associate editor of Benefits Canada.

[email protected]


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Communications Award (<1,000 employees)Forest City Fire Protection & Security maximizes technology to educate its employees By Neil Faba

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Communications Award (1,000+ employees)Alberta Health Services takes a flexible approach to engage diverse employee groups By Tammy Burns

hen Alberta Health Services (AHS) was formed in 2008 as an amalgamation of the province’s former health regions, it had a difficult task:

consolidate the benefits and pension program for approximately 90,000 employees spread across Alberta and based in close to three dozen sites. To

complicate matters, AHS’s staff includes both unionized and non-unionized employees, and many employees work rotating shifts on a 24-hour schedule, seven days a week. Combine that with varying degrees of retirement planning knowledge among plan members and it became a very daunting project.

“We were an extremely large organization changing in a very rapid fashion, moving to a provincial model from a regional model, consolidating more than 11 payroll systems into one,” says Darren Sander, HR director of employee benefits and retirement

programs for AHS. “It was an extremely challenging task to do this in a relatively short period of time.”

Because AHS has such a range of employees—unionized and non-unionized, clinical and administrative, nine-to-five and shift workers—the consolidated plan and communication efforts needed to reflect that diversity. Legacy intranet sites had been carried over from the amalgamated regions but were maintained at varying levels; there was no single source of plan information.

To help communicate the changes taking place, AHS developed a microsite, in partnership with Standard Life; this site would not only ensure that all employees had access to the same information at the same time but would also offer a one-stop shop for group savings plan information. The new microsite would become the central hub for educational materials to help members with their investment selections and retirement planning, such as online presentations, enrollment instructions and financial planning tools. The microsite launched on May 3, 2010, and was promoted in informational flyers, cards and emails sent out to all employees. Since its launch, the site has received more than 60,000 unique page views—that’s two-thirds of all AHS employees.

To support the plan implementation and explain plan details, AHS sent out communication pieces containing FAQs and plan summaries. It also set up 300 live educational sessions to provide investment information and help employees enrol. As well, a special 1-800 number was established for employees to speak with Standard Life financial representatives, obtain enrollment assistance and determine which investment options best suit them. With each communication, AHS stressed that employees were responsible for securing their retirement plans but that AHS was also there to help. The efforts worked. Traffic to the site spiked during the implementation period and then later on, during the November educational sessions, and in December just prior to enrollment deadlines.

“Our plan is not just one plan per se; it’s a multitude of options that feeds into one multi-dimensional program,” Sander remarks. “There were lots of bumps and scrapes along the way…and change for employees. However, they have seen, and are seeing, that the program is designed with a lot of flexibility in mind to meet their needs, and that’s had a lot of success.”

Tammy Burns is associate editor of BenefitsCanada.com.

[email protected]

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Strategic Partnership AwardNiagara Casinos and Sun Life Financial create a sure bet for Niagara Casinos’ employee pension plan By Neil Faba

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after Colleen Falco, director of HR services with Niagara Casinos, assumed responsibility for the company’s benefits initiatives in early 2010, she noticed significant gaps in the way employees interacted with the company’s pension plan.

Of 4,200 employees, approximately 3,800 were enrolled in the plan. But 22% of those employees were fully invested in the default money market fund, and 13% didn’t take full advantage of the company-matching component. And almost nobody was making use of the online tools available to members through Sun Life Financial, the plan’s recordkeeper.

Falco realized that the plan communications didn’t truly encourage members to take action around retirement planning. “I was looking at it from an end-user perspective and even taking my own experience. I’m not somebody who is investment-savvy,”

she admits. “It’s more of a chore for me, so I can relate to the folks who are not taking the time to manage it.”

Falco then began working with Franck Lasry, client relationship executive with Sun Life Financial, to develop a campaign to engage plan members in learning opportunities available in their workplace. Pension Awareness Week—held at Niagara Casinos’ two locations from Nov. 16 to 20, 2010—featured seminars on financial planning and retirement issues, offered from 7:00 a.m. through to 11:00 p.m. to accommodate various employee shifts. Information booths were also set up in the employee lounges, and giveaways encouraged members to access online pension tools.

One of the most successful parts of the campaign, according to Falco, was the opportunity for employees to meet one-on-one with a Sun Life financial advisor—on-site at the casinos—to discuss their plan participa-tion and savings goals.

It was challenging, however, to address the wide demographic makeup of Niagara Casinos’ employee base: more than half are age 40-plus, and there are many different cultures, languages and education levels represented. “We needed to have several solutions to cover a broad spectrum of employees,” Lasry explains. The company identified two main groups: those needing education on how the plan works and those needing basic financial planning advice.

In the weeks following Pension Awareness Week, there were more than 12,000 hits to pension information on the company’s intranet, and member traffic to the Sun Life site increased by 24%.

While Falco was encouraged by the employee response to the initiative, she attributes much of this activity to the “immediacy effect,” noting that statistics began trending downward again throughout 2011. “That’s when we realized that this can’t simply be a one-time effort,” says Falco. “We need to always keep it fresh.”

To that end, Niagara Casinos is partnering with Sun Life again, throughout the latter half of 2011 and into 2012, to make sure that pensions remain on employees’ radar screens. The company is introducing a target date fund (TDF) on Jan. 1, 2012, and it will be the default fund for new plan members going forward. All members will meet one-on-one with a financial advisor in the first six months of 2012 to be educated about the TDF, and they will be required to re-enrol and choose between default fund options.

Lasry believes that Niagara Casinos’ renewed focus on making its employees aware of the pension plan has raised the organization’s profile. “They are doing something meaningful by helping their employees gain a better understanding of their retirement needs.”

Neil Faba is associate editor of Benefits Canada.

[email protected]



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Leading Pension Plan Sponsor AwardTerri Troy makes members a priority By Alyssa Hodder

erri Troy has more than 20 years of experi-ence in the financial services and pension

industries, but it’s for her role as CEO/CIO of the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) Pension Plan that she’s being recognized with this award.

The HRM plan, with around 10,000 members and $1.1 billion in assets, is a multi-employer plan with a joint governance structure. Like many plans, the HRM plan has faced obstacles in the past few years, including economic uncertainty and high volatility in equity markets.

“I am glad that the pension committee and I spent a considerable amount of time focusing on a suitable governance framework when I was hired in 2006, because this helped to pave the way for timely decision-making,” Troy remarks. “For example, on the investment side, this helps us to make tactical decisions in a very timely manner without waiting for the next quarterly

pension committee meeting.” And Troy is no stranger to challenging decisions.

Throughout her career, she has served on industry committees such as the C.D. Howe Institute’s Pension Advisory Group, the CAPSA working group on investment and funding guidelines, and the Advisory Committee for Canadian Investment Review. She’s also extremely active in the Pension Investment Association of Canada (PIAC): Troy served as a board director from 2004 to 2009, has chaired the board and various committees, and has also chaired PIAC conferences, including the upcoming May 2012 conference.

Through her work with PIAC and HRM, Troy is a strong advocate for pension reform. “In 2006, [the HRM plan] obtained partial relief for funding solvency deficits until 2016. This has helped with contribution stability for both our plan members and taxpayers, especially considering the weak equity market and lower bond yield environment in 2008 and today,” she explains.

“However, our goal is to have permanent exemption from funding solvency deficits—along the same lines as what jointly sponsored pension plans ( JSPPs) received in Ontario. This is an extremely important priority for us, because we consider it an unnecessary use of plan member and taxpayer dollars to go into the pension plan at a time when solvency deficits are abnormally high.”

In the interim, the pension committee continues to seek out opportunities to increase investment returns and improve the plan’s funding status. Troy is particularly proud of two recent infrastructure deals, in which the HRM Pension Plan invested alongside the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. “While a plan of our size wouldn’t be able to invest in these types of deals on our own, I was able to contact other CIOs at other pension plans to see whether they wanted to participate as a consortium,” she says. “The benefits are enormous.”

Troy’s vision for the HRM Pension Plan revolves around three key priorities: work with the Nova Scotia government to recognize JSPPs in the province and adopt pension reforms similar to those in Ontario; improve risk-adjusted returns net of fees; and enhance member service through an improved website with real-time customized information. But whatever changes may come, Troy will always bear in mind the best interests of the police officers, firefighters, transit employees and other municipal workers that the plan serves.

“It is incredibly rewarding to see how the impact of decisions made by myself and supported by the pension committee make such a difference for plan members. Every day, I don’t lose sight of the fact that we are working on behalf of plan members, to help them retire in dignity.”

Alyssa Hodder is editor of Benefits Canada.

[email protected]

pension & investment awards 2011 - benefits canada.com...dec 12, 2011 · benefitscanada •...

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