A pension is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be:
A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any program, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income.
The Canada Pension Plan is a contributory, earnings-related social insurance program. It forms one of the two major components of Canada's public retirement income system, the other component being Old Age Security (OAS). Other parts of Canada's retirement system are private pensions, either employer-sponsored or from tax-deferred individual savings. As of June 30, 2022, the CPP Investment Board manages over C$523 billion in investment assets for the Canada Pension Plan on behalf of 21 million Canadians. CPPIB is one of the world's biggest pension funds.
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a U.S. federal tax and labor law that establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. It contains rules on the federal income tax effects of transactions associated with employee benefit plans. ERISA was enacted to protect the interests of employee benefit plan participants and their beneficiaries by:
The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) is an agency in the California executive branch that "manages pension and health benefits for more than 1.5 million California public employees, retirees, and their families". In fiscal year 2020–21, CalPERS paid over $27.4 billion in retirement benefits, and over $9.74 billion in health benefits.
The Universities Superannuation Scheme is a pension scheme in the United Kingdom with £89.6 billion under management as of August 2021. It has over 400,000 members, made up of active and retired academic and academic-related staff mostly from those universities established prior to 1992. In 2006, it was the second largest private pension scheme in the UK by fund size. The headquarters of Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited (USS) are in Liverpool.
Pensions in the United Kingdom, whereby United Kingdom tax payers have some of their wages deducted to save for retirement, can be categorised into three major divisions - state, occupational and personal pensions.
Superannuation in Australia or "super" is a savings system for workplace pensions in retirement. It involves money earned by an employee being placed into an investment fund to be made legally available to fund members upon retirement. Employers make compulsory payments to these funds at a proportion of their employee's wages. From July 2023, the mandatory minimum "guarantee" contribution is 11%, rising to 12% from 2025. The superannuation guarantee was introduced by the Hawke government to promote self-funded retirement savings, reducing reliance on a publicly funded pension system. Legislation to support the introduction of the superannuation guarantee was passed by the Keating Government in 1992.
A defined contribution (DC) plan is a type of retirement plan in which the employer, employee or both make contributions on a regular basis. Individual accounts are set up for participants and benefits are based on the amounts credited to these accounts plus any investment earnings on the money in the account. In defined contribution plans, future benefits fluctuate on the basis of investment earnings. The most common type of defined contribution plan is a savings and thrift plan. Under this type of plan, the employee contributes a predetermined portion of his or her earnings to an individual account, all or part of which is matched by the employer.
Pensions in the United States consist of the Social Security system, public employees retirement systems, as well as various private pension plans offered by employers, insurance companies, and unions.
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is a statutory corporation, set up by the Pensions Act 2004, and has been protecting members of eligible defined benefit (DB) pension schemes across the United Kingdom since 2005. It protects close to 10 million members belonging to more than 5,200 pension schemes across the UK. If an employer collapses and its DB pension scheme cannot pay members what they were promised, the PPF will pay compensation for their lost pensions. Despite being a public body, the PPF is not funded by the government or the taxpayers. It has four sources of funding including an annual levy charged to all the eligible pension schemes under its protection, income from its investments, assets from the schemes that transfer into the fund and recoveries, including money and other assets, from the insolvent employers of the schemes that transfer into the fund.
The Pension Protection Act of 2006, 120 Stat. 780, was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on August 17, 2006.
Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) is a Canadian Crown corporation and institutional investor established to manage several public funds and pensions headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta. AIMCo was established by an act of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in 2008 under the government of Progressive Conservative Premier Ed Stelmach.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, operating as CPP Investments, is a Canadian Crown corporation established by way of the 1997 Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act to oversee and invest the funds contributed to and held by the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).
The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) is a Canadian public pension fund, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. OMERS is a defined benefit, jointly sponsored, multi-employer public pension plan created in 1962 by Ontario provincial statute to administer retirement benefits and manage pension investment funds of local government employees in the Canadian province of Ontario. As of December 31, 2022, OMERS had C$124 billion of assets under management. OMERS serves over 1,000 participating employers and more than half a million active, deferred and retired employees. OMERS members are employed by municipalities, school boards, transit systems, local electrical distribution companies, police service boards, fire fighting and paramedic services, children's aid societies and associated local agencies, boards and commissions.
Defined benefit (DB) pension plan is a type of pension plan in which an employer/sponsor promises a specified pension payment, lump-sum, or combination thereof on retirement that depends on an employee's earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather than depending directly on individual investment returns. Traditionally, many governmental and public entities, as well as a large number of corporations, provide defined benefit plans, sometimes as a means of compensating workers in lieu of increased pay.
BC Pension Corporation is one of the largest pension plan administrative agents in Canada with assets in excess of CA$123.6 billion. Created in 2000 with the passage of the Public Sector Pension Plans Act, the corporation provides pension administration services on behalf of British Columbia's College, Municipal, Public Service, Teachers', and WorkSafeBC pension plans for each of their plan members and employers.
Pensions in Canada can be public, private, and collective, or come from individual savings.
The Alberta Pensions Services Corporation (APS) is a Crown corporation responsible for providing pension benefit administration services for public-sector employees in Alberta, Canada.
A master trust in the UK is a multi-employer occupational pension scheme.
