Canada. Market value of employer-sponsored pension funds up

The market value of employer-sponsored pension funds amounted to $898.1 billion at the end of the third quarter, up 6.3% or $53.4 billion from the previous quarter.

This was the second consecutive quarter of growth in pension fund assets, as they rebounded from significant losses experienced in 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

However, the third-quarter market value of these assets was still 7.5% below the high of $970.8 billion reached in the second quarter of 2008.

Stocks and equity funds accounted for 33.7% of total pension fund assets at the end of the third quarter of 2009, down from a high of 40.1% in the first quarter of 2006.

The proportion of fund assets held in bonds decreased to 35.1%. Real estate investments accounted for 8.1%, mortgages, 1.5%, and short-term investments, 3.9%. The remaining assets, which include pooled foreign funds, accounted for 17.7%.

Pension fund revenues increased 7.5% to $28.2 billion in the third quarter. This was due to special employer payments to reduce pension unfunded liabilities. With losses on the sale of securities down for a third quarter in a row, total expenditures declined 16.7% to $12.9 billion. This resulted in a positive cash flow of $15.3 billion.

About 5.9 million Canadian workers are members of employer pension plans. Of this group, 4.8 million workers are members of trusteed plans. The remaining 1.1 million members with employer pension plans are managed principally by insurance company contracts. Data in this release refer only to trusteed plans and their pension funds.

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