| CLHIA Statement to the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce
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STATEMENT TO THE
STANDING SENATE COMMITTEE
ON
BANKING, TRADE AND COMMERCE
by the
Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association
April 15, 2010
I. INTRODUCTION
Mr. Chair, Members of the Committee, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to be here today on behalf of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association.
I am joined today by Rick Rausch, Senior Vice-President, Individual Retirement and Investment Services, Great-West Life Assurance Company, Frank Laferriere, Chief Operating Officer, Manulife Securities Insurance Inc., and by Kevin Strain, Senior Vice-President, Individual Insurance and Investment, Sun Life Financial.
The CLHIA is a voluntary association whose member companies account for 99 per cent of Canada's life and health insurance business. Over two-thirds of Canada's pension plans, primarily Defined Contribution (DC) plans, are administered by Canada's life and health insurance industry. CLHIA members administer over 8.5 million retirement arrangements for individual Canadians. The industry provides financial security through life insurance, annuities and supplementary health insurance to about 26 million Canadians.
The Canadian life and health insurance industry commends the Standing Committee for its focus on retirement savings mechanisms and income security. We very much share your interests. This is an area that is highly meaningful to our customers, who rely on us for financial security -- whether it be through life and health insurance or lifetime income solutions that we offer through pensions, annuities, RRSPs and RRIFs.
Canada's retirement system is internationally recognized as a success. According to the recent Melbourne-Mercer Global Pension Index, Canada’s retirement savings system has only three peers: Australia, the Netherlands and Sweden. But gaps in retirement-focused savings remain for middle incomer earners, and corresponding refinements of our private pension regime and other savings mechanisms to address these shortfalls are needed.
On March 31, the CLHIA, on behalf of the Canadian life insurance industry, released a position paper on saving for retirement. The paper lays out a number of proposals and I urge you all to read it (and we have made copies available to you). I will summarize some of our recommendations as they relate to the mandate of the review established by this Committee.
Lengthy text; please download the PDF to read the rest of this submission.
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