Program at a Glance

Program

07:00 – 11:30  Registration and CIA Information Desk

07:00 – 07:40  Hot Buffet Breakfast

07:40 – 07:45  Opening Remarks

June Smyth (FCIA), Chair, Organizing Committee for the 2017 Pension Seminar

07:45 – 08:15  Session 1 • Notice of Intent on CIA Public Statement on Public Pension Plans

Speakers:
Joe Nunes (FCIA), Co-champion, CIA Single Topic Task Force on Retirement Age
Jacques Tremblay (FCIA), Co-champion, CIA Single Topic Task Force on Retirement Age

A draft statement is in development and the CIA is looking for member feedback.

08:15 – 09:15  Session 2 • Qualitative Considerations in Asset Liability Modelling (ALM)

Moderator: Alan Cooke (FCIA)
Speaker: Ramy Rayes (ACIA), director, asset allocation, bcIMC

Optimization and quantitative modelling have traditionally been the drivers to determine the preferred asset allocation for meeting pension and insurance liabilities. Increasingly, more qualitative assessments of risk are being used to supplement this approach. This session discusses the current state of ALM and the role that qualitative factors can play in determining asset mix.

09:15 – 09:30  Networking Break

09:30 – 10:30  Session 3 • Discount Rate Sensitivities

Moderator: Stephen Cheng, FCIA, managing director and senior consulting actuary, Westcoast Actuaries

Speaker: Doug Chandler, FCIA, Canadian retirement research actuary, Society of Actuaries

For several years, actuaries have reported the effect on pension plan funding liabilities of a 1 percent decrease in discount rates. In this session, we will look at this accumulated data and practical applications of the patterns that have emerged. Discount rate sensitivities can be estimated fairly accurately with very limited information about a pension plan, allowing regulators, sponsors, financial analysts, and even journalists to make comparisons between pension plans, or estimate the effect of changing discount rates on funding levels. Actuaries can improve the accuracy and reduce the computation burden of asset/liability models with a simple, robust approach to duration and convexity.

10:30 – 11:30  Session 4 • Ontario Ministry of Finance—Solvency Funding Review Update

Moderator: Tulio Walles Mora (FCIA), actuary, Eckler

Speaker: Lynn Lawson*, acting director, pension policy branch, Ontario Ministry of Finance

Ms. Lawson will present an update on the solvency funding framework being introduced in Ontario for defined benefit pension plans.