TELUS Health and Aon plc have published their respective monthly and quarterly statistics on defined benefits (DB) plans’ funded positions. They both indicate a rough start for the year for DB plans in Canada.
The plans started from strong funded positions at the beginning of the year, according to Aon’s Nathan LaPierre, partner for wealth solutions in Canada. Volatile markets caused pension assets to lose 0.5 per cent over the first quarter of 2025. The aggregate funded ratio for Canadian pension plans in the S&P/TSX Composite Index decreased to 105.5 per cent as of March 31, down from 107.5 per cent at the beginning of the year, according to the Aon Pension Risk Tracker.
At TELUS, the investment return of the firm’s representative pension plan portfolio was 2.8 per cent in the month of January, lower than benchmark indices in both Canada and the emerging markets. The company says its monthly report is designed to provide an early indicator of the challenges and opportunities for plan sponsors and administrators.
According to the TELUS pension indices, the funded status of a typical pension plan increased on both a solvency basis and on an accounting basis in the first month of the year. The firms’ solvency index which indicates changes in the solvency funding level of an average plan since the start of the year, rose from the baseline 100 to 101.6 during the month. The accounting index rose to 101.8.
Only the commuted value index measuring the changes in commuted values for members declined during the month to 99.3.
