Comments on: Without a plan

By: sheila manley

sheila manley — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:28:36 +0000

Elore you have the right idea. If you are looking for justice, forget it.
Politicians are only interested in votes.

By: Elore

Elore — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:52:10 +0000

If the pension system is this bad why does the government give pensions to immigrants that have only been here 5 years and have not contributed years of work like others have

By: John Proman

John Proman — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:22:22 +0000

Now wee see how it all adds up. If only there are assurance posted, people would truly appreciate that.

By: Canuckguy

Canuckguy — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:15:44 +0000

Speaking of pensons, I was talking to a retired teacher today about pensions and she expressed surprised that my pension was not indexed like hers. I explained to her that most private companies cannot afford those while the taxpayer will pick up the tab her her and thousands like her on government indexed pensions. I shook my head on how misinformed she was on that topic

By: Knuckle_Head

Knuckle_Head — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:55:11 +0000

What needs to take place are amendments to the CCAA process that put employees of bankrupt companies at the front of the line ahead of other creditors. Currently, if a company goes into bankruptcy protection, long term employees who have taken a company pension in lieu of wages, get screwed when the company fails to meet its obligations to those plans. Despite legal funding requirements (in Ontario for example), very few large corporations fund their plans fully with the blessing of the government , claiming to be too big to fail (GM, Chrysler, Ford, Algoma Steel, Stelco all opted for variances to the pension funding formulas). In the end, workers lose out on those deferred wages and end up getting less than 10 cents on the dollar when the company goes belly-up..

By: YSP

YSP — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:52:24 +0000

This would require the accounting associations & standard-setting boards to come up with a coherent definition of what it means to fully fund a pension plan, which is something they've been unwilling to do up to now. While I like your ideas, the boards will simply lower the bar on what it means for a plan to be fully-funded.

All three accounting associations have firm positions against defined-benefit plans. They regard them as an unnecessary drain on bonuses & dividends.

By: jaydee

jaydee — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:40:37 +0000

This is why people need to take responsibility for their own retirement planning. A company pension is just one component of an overall plan. One needs to consider it along with government programs such as CPP and OAS as well as personal investments, RRSPs, etc. It is extremely foolish for someone to hang their entire retirement on money that they have zero control over (i.e. a company pension).

By: cleargreen

cleargreen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:39:57 +0000

Fixing it may be difficult, more likely impossible. Arranging it so it can never happen again… easy, no earnings can be paid on company shares of any sort, unless the company's pension is fully funded, no provincial politician can receive any pay or pension, unless all pension funds they are responsible for are fully funded.

Wanna bet the pension problem disappears with those two simple interventions?

By: SisyphusThis

SisyphusThis — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:19:39 +0000

Even in the days of booming markets many employers were trying to walk away from DB
plans. I was a trustee of a multi-employer DB plan for about a decade and it was a constant
battle to get employers to maintain their obligations.

By: peter

peter — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:56:06 +0000

Perhaps I missed it in a quick read, but what about DEMOGRAPHY? Is this a new science? Did the rocket scientists on Wall st. and Bay St. miss the obvious…I don't think so.

Knowledgeable insiders have been aware of this issue for decades, as has anyone with common sense. Declining birthrates and an aging population, living longer, is and has been squeezing the systen for at least two decades.

Immigration policy in North America and Europe has been trying to address this but has created a whole new set of "social cleavages".

If you're curious do some googling, this is ugly beyond comprehension.