“Jack Mintz: Beware of the super pension fund” -NOT Jack Mintz is wrong on each and every point in his above titled article in April 21st FP! NOT “immediate need is to soften insolvency regulations to reduce pressures on cash-constrained companies”; the need is to secure the obligations made to millions of Canadian pensioners. These […]
New Ontario pension windup flexibility is great but must include ‘self-administration’ option It is wonderful to read that Ontario Finance Minister Duncan decided to broaden the available options upon pension wind-up, rather than forcing pensioners into an annuity. The Nortel pensioner group NRPC’s announcement in the context of the so called Financial Sponsorship Model-FSM (ominously) […]
Nortel Pensions The past week was a sad and painful one not just for pensioners, but for all current and past employees of the company. Retired pensioners tend to be older and mostly out of the work-force and would likely be especially hard hit by any reduction to their pensions. For many it would be […]
Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions Commissioner Arthurs’ report “an iron fist in a velvet glove” I finished reading last night the Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions Commissioner Arthurs’ report “A Fine Balance- Safe Pensions, Affordable Plans and Fair Rules” Reading the title of the report I got worried about its content, however when I finished […]
Nortel seeks legal advice on exploring bankruptcy This is a sad day for current and ex-Nortel employees. The implication on pension plan members is difficult to determine as yet, but those who have read my earlier blogs on pensions may have a sense on the possible outcomes. A CAW note on potential pension outcomes in […]
Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) II- Musings on the Affordability, Need and Value: A (More) Quantitative View (Originally posted September 2009, re-hosted in March 2012) Last January in Long-Term Care Insurance- An OverviewI looked at LTCI policies. I promised at the time that I’ll do another more quantitative blog on the subject “shortly”. Since last January much […]
Long- term Care Insurance (LTCI- I) (Originally posted in January 2009, re-hosted in March 2012) A couple of months ago a reader asked what I thought about LTCIs. Not being well versed on the subject I started reading about them and the more I read, the more it became obvious why people are so confused […]
Protecting the Downside, while Participating in the Upside A couple of months ago in “Lifecycle investing” I, superficially touched, upon Zvi Bodie’s view that diversification is not the only way to reduce investment/market risk. In fact, according to him, it may not even be the best way. In a reference that I quote in that […]
Structured Products III – Create Your Own Enhanced Index Product In Structured Product II- Good or Bad? It Depends on Your “View” we discussed how to compare products with different performance characteristics, by using your “view” of the probability of future returns and we compared the expected outcome (value) of an enhanced index structured product […]
Structured Products II- Good or Bad? It Depends on Your “View”. An earlier blog provided an overview of Structured Products . As a specific structured product application consider an enhanced index product with six year maturity whose payback is 1.45x the reference price index return in local currency (without dividends),when it is positive, ; and […]
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