This is your daily pension announcement. I spent yesterday afternoon in the wonderful @aupe pension conference.
I was pleased to do a session for attendees as well as listen to Dr. Bob Ascah. Here is an article he wrote last April...🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 #ABLeg albertaviews.ca/the-120-questi…
Dr. Bob Ascah is uniquely qualified to comment on both AIMCO and TBF within the larger Government context. He has a new paper coming (soon). I don't want to let the cat out of the bag, but the title might be "can AIMCO be fixed?" A valid question. #AbLeg#handsoffmypension
I have a better understanding now of the Charter challenges that are possible when Travis strips the ability to choose an investment manager away from a pension fiduciary and trustee. I will continue to review the last two centuries of trust law. #AbLeg
The problem is that Travis thinks these pension funds are "public money". Here is his quote (Hansard):
"AIMCo currently manages an investment portfolio of approximately $110 billion. This is public money. It includes .... most of Alberta’s public-sector pension plans." #AbLeg
That is as stupid as your employer paying you and then claiming ownership over your bank balance. Pensions are deferred wages. Full stop. Deferred wages that are used to attract and retain people like.... nurses. Who Travis is doing a poor job of attracting and retaining.#AbLeg
I think most of Travis' stupid ideas come from foreign funded anti-government organizations like the Fraser Institute. Not a surprise at all. #AbLeg#handsoffmypension
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This is your daily pension announcement. The Pension War Room™️ can't believe this needs to be said again. But, after some side comments from some local UCP MLAs, here we go:
1. The GOA is a minority (49%) contributor to the
teachers' retirement plan. #ableg
2. The GOA does **NOT** guarantee pensions. They are guaranteed by the assets in the plan. (There was a guarantee until 1992.)
3. Since the GOA contributes 49%, they appoint half the Board Members to the ATRF Board. #AbLeg
4. The ATRF Board is the trustee with a fiduciary
duty to the plan members. Selecting investment
strategy and **in any normal world** hiring
investment managers is their responsibility. #AbLeg
This is your daily pension announcement: The Pension War Room™️ is awash in the irony that is the TBA faction of the UCP caucus. Did the slide deck used to convince caucus of DS's latest flaky idea have data from a fake polling firm? I feel the need to know. #AbLeg
We are expecting the @ATRFPension Annual Report (to Aug 23) to come out this week. We will be able to see just how far @aimcoinvests has come to saving us $40 million each and every year. My informed opinion is they have saved teachers $0. Every claim AIMCO made was false. #AbLeg
Here again, for posterity's sake, is the **top level** analysis done by AIMCO and provided to TBF. This really shows two things: AIMCO can't recognize the Mother of All conflicts of interest, and is AIMCO is incapable of calculating a risk adjusted return. #AbLeg
This is your daily pension announcement. The Pension War Room™️ reveals this King's Bench pension decision. If you recall, LAPP, PSPP and SFPP are holding @aimcoinvests and GOA accountable for $1.33 billion dollars of VOLTS losses. #ABLeg canlii.org/en/ab/abkb/doc…
It looks like the GOA tried to sever themselves from the (top secret) arbitration hearing. So your hardworking pension plans needed to go to King's Bench Court to have the GOA again added as a defendant. Which they were, with costs. #AbLeg
This is a thorough ruling. It is hard to think that they even argued such a stupid position: that the GOA had no responsibility for @aimcoinvests even though they own them and are responsible for appointing board members. #AbLeg
The Pension War Room™️ notes that you must be disappointed if you expected someone with a medical background as CEO of AHS. Instead you get Athana. Famous for pension misinformation back in the day. (She was DM of TBF during pension theft.) #AbLeg
A bunch of my old tweets got new life with this announcement. I had catalogued stupid and untrue things she had said about pensions. Stuff like "the GOA assumes all of the pension liability" and "the GOA pays for public sector pensions".
She seemed unaware that teachers, for instance, contribute 51% to their pensions and assume 51% of the liability.
She also seemed unaware that ordering a fiduciary trustee to use certain investment managers will bite the GOA in the ass again and again. #AbLeg
The Pension War Room™️ will again sink into the effluent of pension discourse with a cautionary tale from 1992. The teachers' plan was seriously underfunded (mostly due to GOA).
Teachers were talked into a solution that involved them contribution 1.6% of pay. #AbLeg
In hindsight we see that was a number with little basis in reality. And, after teachers started making that contribution it was found to be "wrong" that they needed to contribute 3.1% of pay. Nearly double.
Bait and switch 'berta style. #AbLeg
I'm afraid that the APP is following the same proven strategy. A lowball contribution rate until **after** decisions are made. Then **mistakes were made** and the contribution rate is all of a sudden higher than CPP. #AbLeg
The plan funded ration is up to 99% (up from 81% in 2014). This all important ratio means that assets almost = liabilities. This improvement is the result of important work the ATRF Board did over the last 10 years. #ABLeg
If you recall, some years ago Redford and Horner tried to cut the other provincial pension plans because they thought their funded ratios were too low. (maybe 80%)
Fast forward: all those plans above 100% and looking good. #ABLeg#neverbelieveapolitician