Focus 2022: helping you manage DB pension risk

Brent leads Sun Life’s Defined Benefit Solutions team, which helps some of Canada’s largest employers manage the risks in their defined benefit pension plans with innovative, customized solutions that address the specific challenges of each plan sponsor.

With over 25 years of experience in the pension and insurance industry, Brent uses his unique blend of pension and life insurance actuarial knowledge to translate defined benefit pension problems into life insurance and investment solutions for plan sponsors. His experience includes liability driven investing (LDI), buy-out annuities, buy-in annuities, longevity insurance and de-risking defined benefit pension plans.

Dhvani works with consultants and plan sponsors to help reduce pension risk with customized solutions using a mix of traditional risk management products, innovative insurance offerings and liability driven investment solutions. Prior to joining Sun Life in 2019, Dhvani worked at a leading global consulting firm in the U.K. for seven years. Dhvani developed a broad range of experience as a retirement consultant and an investment consultant where she worked on all aspects related to the funding, accounting and hedging strategy for pension plans.

Ashwin leads the client solutions team for the Canadian institutional business at Sun Life Capital Management (Canada) Inc. (SLC Management).

Ashwin and his team are responsible for developing innovative customized investment portfolios, leading analytics and management reporting for clients and contributing to the development of market insights that can help companies manage the risks in their portfolios.

Ashwin joined Sun Life in 2017 after 10 years of experience at a leading Canadian consulting firm where he consulted on valuations, asset liability studies and plan design for a variety of pension plans, foundations and endowment funds.

Ashwin holds a Bachelor of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo and is a qualified actuary and a CFA charterholder. 

Mathieu is responsible for all Client-facing aspects of Defined Benefit Solutions, including market segmentation, business development, Client relationship management and marketing. In addition, he champions the team’s strategic planning process and is responsible for driving innovation priorities forward. With his 15 years of pension consulting experience, Mathieu has worked on several groundbreaking deals, including the first ever annuity purchase for active members, and complex liability driven investment mandates.

Eric and his team work closely with plan sponsors and their consultants to develop customized annuity and longevity insurance solutions to manage the risk in their defined benefit pension plan. He collaborates with potential clients and Sun Life’s internal partners to create a pricing solution that works for the plan sponsor and Sun Life.

Eric joined Sun Life Financial in 2018 after over 10 years in consulting where he helped employers manage their HR programs and offered strategic guidance as defined benefit pension actuary and trusted advisor.

Véronique Lauzière, CFA, FSA, FCIA, is an associate partner with LifeWorks in the Investment and Risk practice. She has joined LifeWorks in 2018 and has since been involved in all their major pension risk transfer transactions. She leads the pension risk transfer team and chairs the Retirement & Financial Solutions Innovation Committee. Véronique has worked with over 30 plan sponsors in this space, amounting to over $2.6B of transactions. She has pension and benefit risk transfer expertise both in Canada and in the United States. Her experience spans plans of all sizes and in all jurisdictions, complex plan provisions and innovative transaction structures.

Jérôme Couture is Principal – Pension Investments & Actuarial at Rio Tinto. He is specialized in funding strategy, risk management and pension investments related to the various components of total compensation. He manages the financial implications of Rio Tinto’s various pension plans (DB and DC) and benefits worldwide and is closely involved in the strategic decisions related to Rio Tinto's benefits plans worldwide. He is also a member of various internal and external committees such as the Rio Tinto America Savings Plan Investment Committee, the US Benefit Steering Committee and Chairman of the Association de la Retraite et Avantages Sociaux du Québec (ARASQ) since 2019. Over the past five years, he managed a dozen risk transfer initiatives representing more than $4 billion, in Canada, France, UK and United States.

 Jérôme joined Rio Tinto 13 years ago. Previously, he worked for four years for one of Canada’s leading pension consulting firm.