The “Third Rail” of Pensions: Politics, Problems, and Solutions

The Expert View ·
Featuring Jim Leech

Published on: February 14th, 2020 • Duration: 35 minutes

Jim Leech, the former CEO of the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan – the third largest pension system in the world with nearly $200 billion in AUM – and author of, "The Third Rail: Confronting Pension Failures," joins Real Vision to discuss the two major problems facing pensions in North America. Those problems are the incorrect assumption most pension planners made about human longevity and the sub-par returns that they have actually realized. Leech outlines the specific funding issues in both American and Canadian pension systems and details the daunting problem unfunded pensions represents for policymakers and taxpayers alike. He also supplies a few success stories from his experience as CEO of OTPP that serve as a potential roadmap to get unfunded pensions back in the black. Filmed on January 29, 2020 in Toronto.