CLHIA-ACCAP

13 Segregated fund assets (up 7.3 per cent over the previous year) for these products accounted for almost three- quarters (73 per cent) of that amount. Supplementary annuity contracts provide regular income from (i) the death, maturity or cash surrender proceeds of life insurance policies or (ii) the disability provisions of such policies. At the end of 2014, Canadians owned 3.2 million individual annuity contracts, including settlement and disability annuities. Group annuities In 2014, premiums for group annuities rose 13.4 per cent to $27.9 billion, surpassing the record high of the previous year. Of that amount, the vast majority (about 90 per cent) was for retirement products still in the accumulation stage, including employer-sponsored private pension plans, Group Registered Retirement Savings Plans (GRRSPs), Deferred Profit Sharing Plans (DPSPs), and some non-registered arrangements, such as savings and stock option plans. The remainder was for the purchase of payout annuities. By the end of 2014, total assets held by life insurance providers for group annuity and retirement products increased by 11.3 per cent to $199.5 billion – 18 per cent in general funds (up 4.3 per cent) and 82 per cent in segregated funds (up 13 per cent). Assets for pension plans and other accumulation annuities accounted for 88 per cent of the total. Pension plans Private pension plans that are sponsored by employers and unions are one component of Canada's retirement income system, along with government plans (including Old Age Security and Canada/Quebec Pension Plans) and personal pension plans (primarily RRSPs). According to Statistics Canada (Pension Satellite Account, 2013), the accumulated assets for Canada's total pension wealth, including all three components, reached almost $2.9 trillion by the end of 2013. Of that amount, assets of employer-based private pension plans totalled $1.6 trillion (accounting for 55 per cent of total pension wealth), personal pension plan assets surpassed $1 trillion (36 per cent) and government plans made up the remainder. In total, life insurers managed $259 billion of pension assets with $123 billion for employer- based private pension plans (e.g., defined contribution pensions, defined benefit pensions, and DPSPs) and $136 billion for personal registered savings plans such as RRSPs, RRIFs and TFSAs. According to the latest information, there were more than 18,200 private pension plans in Canada at the beginning of 2014. These plans covered almost 6.2 million members. Insurers generally administer small- to medium-sized plans, accounting for about 70 per cent of all such plans in Canada. Pension Wealth in Canada by Plan Type End of 2013 (assets – billions) Government plans $ 248.5 Employer-based pension plans 1,573.3 Personal registered savings plans 1,030.8 Total 2,852.6 Source: Statistics Canada (Pension Satellite Account, 2013)

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