Canadian defined benefit pension plans focus on service excellence in administration activities
June 12, 2025
Canadian defined benefit pension plans spend US$165 per member on administration costs according to a recent study, which notes that administrators in Canada focus on service excellence across a broad spectrum of administration activities.
The report, compiled by CEM Benchmarking Inc., analyzed a variety of defined benefit (DB) pension plans located in four different countries. The plans ranged in size from 30,000 members to three million.
Canada came out on top in terms of average cost-per-member, followed closely by the Netherlands at US$164, and the U.S. at US$105. At the other end of the scale, the average U.K. DB plan spent just US$71 per member on administrative costs.
The authors found that the key reason for the disparity was the prevailing culture, noting that administrators in Canada and the Netherlands practice an “enhanced" services model that focuses on service excellence across a broad spectrum of administration activities.
By contrast, the U.K.’s focus is primarily on service maintenance across mission critical activities, with lower levels of spending on contact centres, governance, IT and staff support. In between, the U.S. pension industry seemed to employ a mixed model, with enhanced services more likely to be used in large urban centres with a higher cost of living.
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