Category Pensions
Pensions Advocacy
Pensions Advocacy Pensioners without a fully indexed government guaranteed pension plan are exposed to numerous problems, beside the corrosive effect of inflation over a lengthy retirement and the rapid disappearance of DB pension plans in general. Some of these exposures relate to pension rules or lack of them, that may have been appropriate when introduced, […]
Q&A: Take Commuted Value or “Pension”? (Laid-off from Nortel in the summer of 2009)
Q&A: Take Commuted Value or “Pension”? (Laid-off from Nortel in the summer of 2009) Q: A friend of mine was in the latest round of (Nortel) lay-offs, and is trying to decide whether to take his pension as a lump sum, or stay in the plan. Of course, in the current mess, there is no […]
Emergency Policy/Legislation Changes to Ease Impact of Pension Crisis and Enable Pension Reform
Emergency Policy/Legislation Changes to Ease Impact of Pension Crisis and Enable Pension Reform
Doomed Nortel Pensioners? Outside-the-box Pension Options and Path to Pension Reform
Doomed Nortel Pensioners? Outside-the-box Pension Options and Path to Pension Reform (Originally posted July 15, 2009 and retargeted to new platform March 2012) In a nutshell The pension system failed Nortel pensioners; it is now time to let pensioners control their own destiny. We are where we are and we need to generate the best […]
Too little, too late- A 50% interim CV payment would be more appropriate than the proposed 69%!
Too little, too late- A 50% interim CV payment would be more appropriate than the proposed 69%! You may have missed the story not mentioned in the title of Bert Hill’s Ottawa Citizen article “Court names Toronto law firm to represent Nortel pensioners” unless you actually read the article itself, is Nortel’s request for permission […]
Systemic Failure in Canada’s Private Pensions: Who could have prevented it? What could be done now?
Systemic Failure in Canada’s Private Pensions: Who could have prevented it? What could be done now? (Originally published April 17, 2009, and re-hosted on WordPress March 5, 2012) There has been much ink spilled already about the destruction of Nortel, Canada’s technology icon. As an almost 30 year employee of Bell-Northern Research/Nortel and now a pensioner, I […]
Pensions: Relief for companies, but not pensioners
Pensions: Relief for companies, but not pensioners Despite the fact that Canada’s financial institutions appear to be generally in better shape than American ones, some say due to more stringent regulation, even if that was true it sure doesn’t apply to protection of pensioners. Todd Wallack writes in the Boston Globe’s “Pension Plan Choices May […]
Pensions: General and Nortel Specific Topics
Pensions: General and Nortel Specific Topics 1. Pension outcomes in case of bankruptcy/restructuring/asset sales You may have heard of a well-known telecommunications equipment supplier, a global player which prospered for decades and then fell on hard times lost billions of dollars, laid off thousands of workers, had over $1B under-funded pension obligations, had Pavi Binning […]
“Pension relief for corporations? Yes, but not without protecting the pensioners!
“Pension relief for corporations? Yes, but not without protecting the pensioners! Past week’s papers were filled with articles on why Ottawa should be considering “pension relief” for corporations with underfunded pension plans. But most commentators missed the real story. This is not about the impact on companies which are contractually responsible for the pensions; it […]
What’s wrong with private sector defined benefit pension plans? Everything? …Problems and Solutions
What’s wrong with private sector defined benefit pension plans? Everything? …Problems and Solutions (Originally posted October 27, 2008 re-hosted March 5, 2012) A series of actions/circumstances, any one of which could be individually damaging to the welfare of pensioners, when taken together could threaten to destroy the retirement of millions of Canadians. The problems are […]
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