The University Pension Plan (UPP) is Ontario’s new multi-employer pension plan for university employees. It has been developed by a consortium that includes the Council of Ontario Universities (representing employers), OCUFA, CUPE and other employee representative groups. Three universities—Queen’s, Toronto, and Guelph—are lined up to be the first participants, with a transfer from their current plans scheduled for 2019. If those transfers proceed smoothly, it is likely that other universities, including ours, will be encouraged to join the UPP in the future.
The UPP website offers some reasons why the new plan would be good for employees. However, Statistics and Actuarial Science Professor Mary Hardy argues, the advantages listed are not accurate, and the website is silent on potential disadvantages. In this talk, Hardy will describe and critique the UPP plan design, in terms of affordability, risk, fairness, and adequacy. Using this analysis, we will review the case for and against membership of the UPP from the perspective of UW (or WLU) pension plan members and retirees.
About the speaker
Mary Hardy is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and of the Institute of Actuaries and is a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst. Her research interests cover aspects of solvency and risk management for both life insurance and pension plans.