Chamber Pension Plan celebrates successful 2019

The Chamber Pension Plan celebrated a busy and successful year at its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, 4 December.

Members gathered to hear updates on the plan’s performance and activity from Chamber Pension Chairman Paul Schreiner, Mercer Investments LLC partner Amy Labanowski, and PricewaterhouseCoopers auditor Trevor Dunbar.

Lower expense ratio, broader diversification

The Plan enjoyed lower fees and broader diversification thanks to a move to passive management.

Data from Mercer, the plan’s international pension consultant, showed passive management portfolios had outperformed active management portfolios in 6 of the last 7 quarters since the Plan moved to a passively managed equity portfolio.

Member returns this year also benefited from the plan’s record-low all-in-expense ratio of 0.82%.

“The Lifecycle Funds are diversified across fixed income and equity, across countries, sectors and individual securities to help whether market volatility,” assured Mrs. Labanowski.

Chairman Schreiner concluded by noting: “Through consistent reviews and evaluation of our service providers, we ensure that the maximum value for our members' money is obtained."

Community advocate

The Plan continues to advocate for members’ rights concerning employer delinquencies and breaches of relevant laws.

“This year the Plan met with the Department of Commerce and Investments and the Department of Labour and Pensions regarding a large number of delinquent pension accounts and companies operating without being up-to-date with pension contributions.” said Schreiner. “This is a real issue in the community, and we look forward to continuing this dialogue in 2020.”