Expert panel: How DB plan sponsors can tailor pension mortality assumptions |
The longevity of a defined benefit pension plan’s members can have a material impact on the cost of providing the plan’s promised benefits.
In March 2026, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries published a suite of new pension mortality tables, which can be used by actuaries for the actuarial valuation of pension and other post-employment benefit plans. The release of the new tables, which are based on a study of the mortality experience of Canadian pension plan members, is a significant development as it has been over a decade since Canadian pension mortality tables were last published.
The expected mortality experience of a group of individuals can vary widely, depending on the characteristics of the group. The same is true for pension plans.
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To assist actuaries with the selection of the most appropriate mortality tables when performing an actuarial valuation, a number of variations of the tables have been published, including gender (male and female), longevity expectations, pension recipient (retiree and surviving spouse) and weighting — pension amounts (primarily for pension valuations) and........