As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to unfold, creating many challenges for our families and communities, the UBC Pension Administration Office and Staff Pension Plan (SPP) Board would like to assure you that we are committed to continue the smooth operation of your pension plan, and to ensure that monthly pensions are paid on time.
Plan Member Services
We are committed to:
- Ensuring retirees continue to receive their monthly pension payments on time
- Providing timely responses to member inquiries
- Continued professional investment management of the SPP fund
Our Member Services team is working our hardest to serve you. While you may experience slower than usual response times, rest assured that we will provide the best service that we can as we help you navigate your questions or concerns. We are thinking creatively to serve you in new ways as we adapt to these unprecedented circumstances. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work through this together.
Focused on the long term
While there has been significant disruption to the investment markets, the SPP is well positioned to withstand the market turmoil and volatility. The SPP Board, in conjunction with the Plan’s investment manager, UBC Investment Management Trust Inc., is closely monitoring the Plan’s overall financial condition throughout this crisis, and the SPP continues to be well funded. Our target benefit plan design and the Plan’s benefits funding test are carefully built for the long run. The strength of the Plan’s benefits funding test is that it has always required us to hold a significant margin or reserve to keep the Plan sustainable over the long term.
The SPP’s investments are broadly diversified, which helps lessen the impact of the current market downturn. Investments are split between a wide variety of public equities, bonds, real estate and other investments. We take a long-term view on investments and invest in private markets, which generally provide a more stable return stream in a volatile public market environment.
The challenge facing investors today confirms the importance of being focused on the long term. While we do not expect a quick recovery, we do expect the value of our Plan investments to come back over time.
We hope this update provides you with some comfort in knowing your pension is in good hands. Please be safe, take care of yourself and your loved ones, and stay healthy.
Sincerely,
Orla Cousineau
Executive Director, UBC Staff Pension Plan
