The CIA oversees all professional guidance and education for Canadian actuaries, excluding the Standards themselves. As Chair of the Practice Council, Mr. Rivard is appointed on an ex-officio (non-voting) basis to the CIA Board and the Canadian Actuarial Standards Board.

Mr. Rivard joined Segal’s Calgary office in 2004 and has more than 20 years of retirement consulting experience. He provides consulting services to a large number of pension plan clients throughout Canada. Mr. Rivard received a BComm with Honours from the University of Manitoba. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. Mr. Rivard is a member of the Alberta Specified Multi-Employer Pension Plan Advisory Committee and the Actuarial Advisory Committee for Alberta Finance. He also serves on the Alberta/British Columbia Joint Advisory group to rewrite the pension legislation for these two jurisdictions.

• Canadian consumer prices rose 1.0 percent in the 12 months to June 2010, with a 1.4 percent increase in May and a 1.8 percent increase in April. Increase in the cost of energy was the main contributor to the rise in prices during the first quarter of 2010.
• The unemployment rate fell 0.4 percent in the second quarter of 2010 to 7.9 percent. The 109,000 jobs added in April was the highest monthly total since August 2002. Since July 2009, employment has increased by 2.4 percent, this increase almost offsetting the labour market losses in the fall of 2008.
• The Canadian dollar fell 4.5 percent against its U.S. counterpart and also declined against the yen, the British pound and the Swiss franc.
• Canadian GDP rose 6.1 percent for the first quarter of 2010, the strongest quarterly increase in more than a decade. Contrary to the previous quarter, net trade subtracted from growth.
• This issue of Synopsis also analyzes noteworthy developments in the U.S. including the volatility in equities markets, the escalation of default concerns and bank failures.

For further information, please go to http://www.segalco.ca/publications-and-resources/synopsis/?id=1512

A new Segal NewsLetter addresses CAPSA's recommendations for best practices in pension plan funding and highlights how a pension funding and benefit policy can help a plan achieve its goal of ensuring its members retire with their anticipated benefits. This process ideally, involves asset-liability modeling (ALM). Segal often works with clients to develop a pension funding and benefit policy and to undertake ALM projections.

Read the March 2010 NewsLetter, "The Merits of Developing a Pension Funding and Benefit Policy to Follow CAPSA's Guidelines"

Read the December 2009 Bulletin, "Conversion to IASB Accounting Standards Will Have Little Impact on Multi-Employer Pension Plans and Participating Employers"

A recent Segal NewsLetter places this important development in context and addresses the implications for sponsors of multi-employer and public sector pension plans.

Read the November 2009 NewsLetter, "The Dawn of a New Pension Funding Era?"

Read "Relationship Maintenance"

Read "De-Risking DB"

Read our press release