Why is it that millions of Canadians in the enviable position of workplace pension plan membership still have significant opportunities to improve their financial wellbeing? In this report, Fuse – with insights shared by Canadian pension plans and Certified Financial Planners – explores the context for the most frequent and impactful pension-related financial decisions that members must make throughout their lifetimes. We consider the spectrum of options that plan administrators have implemented or are considering to better support members in pension related financial decision making. And we explore barriers and potential solutions at the plan and pension industry level and the implications for pension administrators.
Services
Pension
Administration
Technology
Board Services
Our Board Services are crafted to elevate the performance and effectiveness of CEOs and boards, fostering collaboration and ensuring robust governance structures. We recognize that a high-functioning board is fundamental to the success and sustainability of any organization. Our tailored services enhance strategic oversight, board dynamics, and leadership capabilities, aligning with the unique needs and challenges of each organization.
Scenarios & Foresight
Scenario Planning allows pension funds and institutional investors to navigate an uncertain future with confidence. By leveraging proven scenario planning and foresight methodologies, we help organizations explore multiple potential futures, identify emerging risks and opportunities, and develop resilient strategies. Our approach ensures that our clients are well-prepared to adapt and thrive in a dynamic and complex environment.
What we do
Strategy
Strategy is what you do – and should be a deliberately designed “theory of advantage”, particularly for pension funds and institutional investors with multi-generational mandates. Our Strategy services are designed to help organizations make choices on how to navigate complex environments, identify growth opportunities, and deliver value to stakeholders. By working collaboratively with our clients, we develop strategy that is both innovative and practical.
Business Transformation
The only constant is change – and today’s operating environment requires new adaptability from pension funds and institutional investors. Our Business Transformation services are designed to help organizations optimize their operations, adapt to changing market conditions, and drive sustainable growth. By leveraging our proven methodologies and deep industry expertise, we support our clients in navigating complex transformation journeys and achieving their strategy.
Innovation
We love the retirement industry, but we also want to see positive change. Our Innovation services operate at the intersection of our experience with the way things are and our desire for disruption of the status quo, helping organizations develop and implement strategies that identify and drive innovation in a meaningful and measurable way. We understand that well-intentioned innovation efforts often fail because they are incompatible with the core business, and have developed a range of archetypes to build innovation cultures that have staying power. By leveraging proven methodologies and our expertise, we support our clients in creating a culture of innovation.
Systemic Risk Management
Risks are inherent in seeking returns. We understand that effective risk management is essential for the stability and growth of pension funds and institutional investors. We go beyond traditional risk management to incorporate a full spectrum of uncertainty, requiring different approaches to probability. Risk, which can be quantified, is distinct from uncertainty, which cannot. However, institutional investment and pension management processes often conflate the two, treating uncertainties as low-probability risks. Our Risk Management services are designed to help organizations proactively identify, assess, and mitigate risks and uncertainty, across the full value chain. By leveraging comprehensive methodologies and industry expertise, our clients can prioritize what truly matters, and communicate their risk insights simply and effectively.
Communications
Undiagnosed business challenges often become communications challenges. Communication is a powerful tool for realizing strategy and shaping investment outcomes;. at its best, it sharpens our ability to model and explain our strategic choices. Our Communications services are designed to help pension funds and institutional investors articulate their purpose, values, and direction clearly and compellingly. Every communication is an opportunity to reinforce strategy, build consensus and validate hypotheses. We support our clients in crafting impactful narratives and ensuring transparent communication that fosters strong relationships with stakeholders.
Pension Administration Strategy & Oversight
Pension administrators are the backbone of the retirement system, responsible for delivering seamless, compliant, and efficient services to members. Their work ensures that millions of individuals receive the benefits they’ve earned, making pension administration a vital component in securing financial futures.
Member Strategy & Insights
Effective pension administration is critical for ensuring the long-term sustainability and success of pension funds. Our Pension Administration Strategy and Oversight services are designed to optimize administrative processes, enhance governance structures, and develop strategy and plans that align with current goals while addressing future aspirations. We leverage our proven methodologies and deep industry expertise to support our clients in delivering efficient, compliant, and member-focused pension administration.
Pension Operations
Pension operations are complex, and involve a myriad of interrelated people, processes, technologies and data that must work seamlessly together to deliver the regulated, accurate, and designed stakeholder experience. Our Pension Operations services are designed to help pension funds and administrators optimize their administrative processes, improve data accuracy, and enhance service delivery. By leveraging our proprietary tools, leading practices, lived experience and expertise, we support our clients in achieving compliance and operational excellence.
Pension Modernization
Modernization is crucial for pension funds, institutional investors and administrators to remain competitive and responsive to changing regulatory, technological, and member expectations. Our Pension Modernization services are designed to help organizations assess readiness, plan strategically, and implement modernization initiatives effectively. By leveraging our expertise and lived experiences, our clients deliver better, faster, and more cost-efficient service.
Technology Strategy
The role that technology can and should play is an increasingly critical area of learning and choice for pension funds and institutional investors. Our Technology Strategy & Oversight services are designed to help organizations develop and implement technology strategies that align with their strategy objectives, enhance operational efficiency and drive innovation. By leveraging our expertise and industry leading practices, we support our clients in navigating the complexities of technology management and achieving their technology-related goals.
Technology Transformation
Transformation is a near-constant in technology, given the pace of both people and product-driven change. Our Technology Transformation services are designed to help organizations optimize their IT functions, adopt new technologies, and deliver advantage. By leveraging proven methodologies and our expertise, we support our clients in navigating the complexities of technology transformation and achieving sustainable success.
Investment Strategy & Oversight
Institutional investment portfolios are more than a collection of assets – they are complex systems that must be managed with an understanding of the interplay between the assets, asset classes and total fund. Integrated investment strategies and oversight are critical for the success of pension funds and institutional investors. Our Investment Strategy & Oversight services are designed to help organizations develop and implement effective investment strategies across the layers of a fund, enhance governance frameworks, and align investment activities with their overall goals. From the CIO, asset class head, sector leader and deal team, we support our clients in optimizing their investment portfolios and achieving sustainable, long-term growth.
Systemic Investment Management
The investment industry has long been focused on ‘strategic asset allocation’ and ‘strategic initiatives.’ But the investment landscape has changed. Today, institutional investors, particularly universal owners, are no longer just navigating markets. They are navigating systems. These systems are complex, interconnected, and full of feedback loops that don’t fit into traditional models. Systemic investment management broadens the scope. Instead of focusing narrowly on one sector, systemic investors look at how themes like decarbonization impact every sector—how they alter the demand for raw materials, shift geopolitical power, and redefine infrastructure. Investments are made with an understanding of how these systems interact and evolve together. Our approach focuses not on overwhelming boards and management with more data but on helping them make sense of the data that matters. We provide tools that guide leaders on how to think, not just what to think.
Strategy Diligence
We recognize the critical importance of comprehensive due diligence in the investment process. Our Strategy Diligence services are designed to help pension funds and institutional investors conduct thorough assessments of potential investments, identify risks, and uncover opportunities for value creation. We complement the existing financial and commercial diligence that comes standard with every deal. We tackle the less quantifiable, but equally material factors that we know drives material long-term value for assets and their owners.
Portfolio Strategy
Well-crafted portfolio strategy is essential for the long-term success of pension funds and institutional investors. Our Portfolio Strategy services help organizations develop and implement strategy that optimizes portfolio performance, manage risks, and achieves objectives. By understanding our client’s specific goals, constraints, and external forces, they are better able to drive portfolio innovation, including creating new asset classes where necessary, underpinned by tailwinds and created future societal needs.
Investment Operations
Effective investment operations are crucial for the success and sustainability of pension funds and institutional investors. Our Investment Operations services are designed to help organizations streamline their processes, enhance governance, and optimize performance. By leveraging our expertise and industry best practices, we support our clients in building robust operational frameworks that drive efficiency and deliver superior results.
Talent Strategy
Effective human resource strategies are critical for the success of pension funds and institutional investors. Our HR Strategy services are designed to help organizations develop and implement HR initiatives that deliver on strategy, enhance workforce capabilities, and drive overall performance. By leveraging our expertise and industry leading practices, we support our clients in building strong, agile, and high-performing HR functions.
What we do
Talent Transformation
Talent is arguably an organization’s greatest asset; people must be actively, intentionally and empathetically managed and supported by deliberate structures that enable productive work. Our Talent Transformation services address the acute need for pension funds and investment managers to organize and align their teams, talent capabilities and planning to strategy.
Leadership
Strong leadership is essential for the success and sustainability of pension funds and institutional investors. Our Leadership services are designed to help organizations develop and nurture effective leaders who can develop and drive strategy, inspire teams, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. By leveraging our expertise and proven methodologies, we support our clients in building robust leadership capabilities that align with their goals.
What we do
Talent Management
Talent is central to the success of pension funds and institutional investors. Our Talent Management services help organizations develop a holistic approach to managing their workforce. We assist clients in creating comprehensive strategies that encompass all key aspects of talent management, including Employee Value Proposition (EVP) Development, Learning and Development, and Employee Satisfaction and Retention Assessment. Through an integrated approach that aligns talent choices with enterprise strategy, we help organizations ensure that they have the right people in place to drive long-term success and deliver on their mission.
Clients
- Boards
- Institutional Investors
- Pension Administrators
- Beyond Pensions
Boards
Boards of pension funds play a critical role in ensuring the long-term sustainability and success of retirement systems. They are responsible for making decisions that affect the financial well-being of millions of people, as well as the economic and social impact that pension fund capital has on both local and global scales. In an environment of increasing complexity, evolving regulations, and market uncertainty, pension boards must provide strong governance and strategic oversight to secure the future for their members.
Institutional Investors
Investment managers are responsible for deploying vast pools of capital within pension funds, securing the financial futures of millions. But their role goes beyond generating returns – they must navigate complex global markets, manage risk, and adapt to shifting regulatory and economic landscapes. Canada’s pension funds have set themselves apart with what’s often referred to as the “maple revolutionary model” – a system that has redefined how institutional capital is managed worldwide.
Pension Administrators
Pension administrators are the backbone of the retirement system, responsible for delivering seamless, compliant, and efficient services to members. Their work ensures that millions of individuals receive the benefits they’ve earned, making pension administration a vital component in securing financial futures.
Beyond Pensions
The retirement landscape extends beyond individual funds and administrators. We work with policymakers, industry associations, and other stakeholders to shape the future of retirement systems, inform policy, and drive positive change for the broader industry.
Research
- Fuse Insights
- Fusings Blog
- Holistic Retirement Research
- Financial Wellness Dashboard
Fuse Insights
The latest insights, ideas, and perspectives from Fuse. Explore the latest thinking on the trends shaping the pensions and investments industry.
Fusings Blog
Musings from the team at fuse, as we bring together builders, believers and big ideas in our quest to think about pensions, investing and retirement, differently.
Holistic Retirement Research
Every Canadian participates in an unspoken social contract about retirement security. We contribute to pensions, save for the future, and trust that our collective institutions will honor their promises when we need them most.
Financial Wellness Dashboard
Boards of pension funds play a critical role in ensuring the long-term sustainability and success of retirement systems. They are responsible for making decisions that affect the financial well-being of millions of people, as well as the economic and social impact that pension fund capital has on both local and global scales.
Team
- Meet the Fuse team
Meet the Fuse team
We are a team of dedicated experts with deep experience in strategy, technology, and operations, specifically within the pension space. We are passionate about the role pensions play in securing financial futures, and we bring our diverse expertise in investment management and pension administration to tackle the most pressing challenges facing the industry today.
What We Do
Fuse is a research-driven strategy firm, partnering with pensions, investors and policymakers to improve risk-taking and retirement outcomes. We provide capability-building advisory services to our clients, equipping changemakers to design and deliver the modernization journey. We invest in innovative primary research, generating data-rich learnings that challenge industry status quo.
What we do
- About Us
- Board Member Development
- About Us
- CEO Transition
- About Us
What We Believe
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
What we do
- What We Believe
- Board Member Development
- What We Believe
- CEO Transition
- What We Believe
Partnerships
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
What we do
- Partnerships
- Board Member Development
- Partnerships
- CEO Transition
- Partnerships