Defined Contribution Plan Summit
Agenda
AGENDA
Theme: Looking Back to Look Forward
Dress for the conference is business casual for sessions.
Dress for the Thursday night reception is formal business.
Each session has been built to include a question and answer period.
Wednesday February 10th
5:00 – 6:00 pm Mandatory Speaker Rehearsal
6:00 – 6:30 pm Registration
6:30 – 7:30 Opening Cocktail/ Practice for DC Rock Band Idol
7:30 – 8:15 pm Welcome Dinner Reception
8:30 – 10:00 pm DC Rock Band Idol
Thursday February 11th
7:15 – 8:15 am Breakfast
8:15 – 8:30 am Opening Remarks
8:30 – 8:45 am Divining DC’s Destiny
In a special visit to Banff, we welcome Alooka Aheadovich, a renowned fortune teller, to make her predictions for 2010 and beyond. What does the future hold for DC plans? Stay tuned to find out...
8:45 – 9:45 am Keynote Session
Get Ready! What’s coming at the DC Pension Industry
The next decade will be pivotal for all pension managers and plan sponsors. It will be a tumultuous time, with aging boomers starting to cash in for their retirements, governments coming under pressure by those who are not adequately prepared, and major seismic shifts in the global economy and domestic workplace. Richard Worzel is a strategic planner, Chartered Financial Analyst, and Canada’s leading futurist. In this presentation he surveys the landscape of the future, including the continued expansion of life expectancy and the coming rush in new medical miracles; the pressures that will shape the debate in governmental pension reform; what the shifting of economic power to developing countries means for our economy and plan sponsors; and how technology is going to radically reshape the workplace, both in the way business is done, and who is hired.
Speaker: Richard Worzel, Canada's Leading Futurist and Author
9:45 – 10:45 am Session Two
2A: The Art of the (Im)Possible - Politics and DC Pensions
What do governments hope to achieve through pension reform? Can they take the long view? Or are their decisions driven solely by the impact their actions have on the next election? This session addresses the risks of government involvement for sponsors, suppliers and taxpayers, how the political process can influence the DC market, and how we might influence that process.
Speaker: Ron Sanderson, Director, Policyholder Taxation and Pensions, CLHIA
2B: Retirement Income Debate
This presentation will share specific ideas on how to improve the retirement, savings, and income system in Canada. It will stress that record keepers should be permitted to create national, multi-employer, defined contribution (DC) pension plans which include provisions for self-employed people to participate as well. It will look at some of the features of this new arrangement and debunk the myths associated with the DC plan (e.g., fees are too high, plan members don't know how to invest, etc.) and highlight the strengths of the DC plan arrangement and why it works (e.g., effective governance, cost effective, flexible etc.). This presenter will address the barriers that prevent pension coverage today and the changes that need to happen to overcome these barriers.
Speaker: Tom Reid, Senior Vice-president, Group Retirement Services, Sun Life Financial
10:45 – 11:00 am Networking Coffee Break
11:00 am – 11:30 pm Session Three
What's The Take on TDFs After the Mother of All Stress-Tests?
This talk will be a comprehensive discussion on TDFs, the fund strategies that are changing the landscape of DC investment design. This presentation will explain target date fund structures and what problem they trying to solve. Who were they designed for? What has been the reception to TDFs in North America? It will talk to common myths, perceptions and misperceptions. And you can't have a report card, if you don't have criteria, right? But TDFs present a unique challenge to the plan sponsor community, in terms of benchmarking. What's a plan sponsor to do? Finally, how are TDFs holding up and how have other models fared?
Speaker: Mark Friebel, Senior Vice-president, Asset Allocation and head of Asset Allocation, Pyramis Global Advisors
11:30 am – Noon Session Four
The Importance of Global Equities in DC Plans
Over the past few years, global equity markets have been underperforming their Canadian counterpart. Are global equities still a viable asset class for Canadian investors? Do the diversification effects outweigh the performance differences? As a member of a DC plan, what can I reasonably expect from my global equity investment? These are the questions that will be addressed as we review the importance of global equities in a DC plan.
Speaker: Alan Daxner, Executive Vice-president, McLean Budden
Noon – 1:00 pm Lunch Break
1:00 – 1:30 pm Session Five
Global DC Strategies
The financial crisis affected DC plans around the world. The steps taken – or not taken – by both plan sponsors and members in response to wildly fluctuating markets will have a significant impact on members’ post-retirement standard of living and/or the length of their careers. What has been the response from other parts of the globe to enabling, encouraging and even mandating savings rates and investment strategies that will provide retirement income adequacy for plan members by normal retirement age? What short- and long-term strategies might Canadian plan sponsors borrow from their counterparts in other countries to guard against the effects of future market meltdowns?
Speaker: Azita Bassiji, Principal, Hewitt Associates
1:30 – 2:00 pm Session Six
Auto-piloting Your CAP
The stubborn problem of plan member inertia continues to challenge plan sponsors. Autopilot features – such as auto-enrolment and auto-contribution increases – take some decisions out of members' control. Do the benefits outweigh the potential pitfalls? Canadian plan sponsors can learn from other countries' experiences.
Speaker: Jeff Aarssen, Vice-President Distribution, Great-West Life Group Retirement Services
2:00 - 2:15 pm Networking Break
2:15 – 2:45 pm Session Seven
Communicating Retirement Plan Information in the Age of Social Media
DC plan members typically have little investment knowledge and don’t understand the plans offered to them. What are the latest tools to educate plan members? How do you engage members to get them—and keep them—on the right path to retire successfully? This session looks at new trends in DC plan member communications, as well as how to handle the members that you just can’t engage.
Speaker: Claude Leblanc, Senior Vice-president, Group Savings and Retirement, Standard Life
2:45 – 3:15 pm Session Eight
Reality Programming Comes to Retirement Planning: Market Volatility Survivor
Turbulent markets have captured the attention of plan sponsors, advisors, members, and providers. While members clamoured for information about the effect of dropping markets on their estimated retirement incomes, they didn’t abandon their funds in a panic. With provincial and federal governments turning their attention to the importance of retirement income adequacy, there hasn’t been a better time to use behavioural finance insights to help plan members take action. Provided we get and keep members’ attention, we have the ultimate opportunity to turn misfortune to advantage.
Speakers: Barry Noble, Vice-president, Distribution, Group Savings & Retirement Solutions and Nancy Campbell, Assistant Vice-president of Marketing, Group Savings and Retirement Solutions, Manulife Financial
3:15 – 3:30 pm Closing Remarks
6:30 - 7:30 pm Cocktail Reception
7:30 - 10:00 pm Formal Dinner and Entertainment
Friday February 12th
8:00 – 9:00 am Breakfast
9:00 – 9:15 am Opening Remarks
9:15 – 9:45 am Session Nine
Examining Asset Allocation Approaches that Impact DC Plans
Attend this session to understand the particular importance of strategic asset allocation given the growth and popularity of Defined Contribution pension plans. Learn about the significance and impact of a longevity driven approach to strategic asset allocation in matching the risk-return profiles and income needs of investors as they age. We will evaluate whether tactical allocation should be incorporated into the asset allocation glidepath, the backbone of target date funds.
Speaker: Tom Nelson, Senior Quantitative Analyst, Franklin Templeton
9:45 – 10:15 am Session Ten
CAP Investment Selection and Monitoring
Perhaps the most complex area of CAP governance, investment selection and monitoring presents many challenges for plan sponsors. There are many questions to consider. How many funds should be offered? Should it be one (e.g., no choice), a handful, a dozen or two? What kind of investment styles, starting from passive versus active and if the latter, growth, value or some kind of blend and more considerations. What should the default fund be? How do target-date, target-risk or other types of fund offerings fit into the mix? This session will present strategies and alternatives to help plan sponsors to navigate efficiently and effectively through these complex issues.
Speaker: Greg Hurst, Principal, Morneau Sobeco
10:15 – 10:30 am Networking Coffee Break
10:30 – 11:00 am Session Eleven
The Future of DC Investing
There has been a continued evolution in DC investment options starting from a small number of in-house funds to today’s sophisticated pre-packaged investment solutions. Positioned as diversified, risk managed portfolios; members expected these solutions to safely navigate turbulent markets but were severely disappointed in the losses incurred in 2008. To defend DC members’ assets against the inevitable fluctuations in capital markets, the current approach needs to evolve further. By reviewing the vulnerabilities of the current offerings, a solution can be put together that focuses on risk, not just return.
Speaker: Chris Walker, Vice-President, Institutional Investments, Invesco
11:00 – 11:30 pm Session Twelve
Leading Practices in Pension Committee Management
The pension committee plays an important role in the decision-making process. How should a committee be structured? What tools and education do committee members need to anticipate future risks and make sound decisions on the plan’s behalf? How do you ensure consistent policy setting as committee members change overtime? What are the best practices will enable the committee to fulfill its fiduciary duties and help to ensure good plan governance? Experience of a long standing Defined Contribution plan, which has had a member driven pension committee for over 40 years, will be shared.
Speaker: Louise Koza, Director, Human Resources (Total Compensation), The University of Western Ontario
11:30 am Closing Remarks and Closing Luncheon
*** THIS AGENDA IS FINAL AND WILL NOT CHANGE.
For more information, contact Jennifer Hughey Editor, Conferences and Online Events
This page was last updated: January
22, 2010
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