1. Pension Information Committee Report
October 2016

2. Pension Information Committee (PIC)
The PIC was created in 1988 to promote better communication with Plan members.
The PIC achieves its tasks through efforts, such as:
Providing input on the PIC report
Holding a yearly meeting to review various issues related to the Plan
Communicating with members
The PIC’s mandate, as defined by the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985, also includes reviewing, for information purposes, the financial, actuarial, and administrative aspects of the Plan.
PIC members for 2016:

3. Evolution of the Membership
As of December 31, 2015, there were 34,054 retiree and survivor members.
The DC arrangement was introduced on January 1, 2005 and has since grown to cover 61% of active members (i.e., employees).

4. Age Distribution of Retirees/Survivors
As of December 31, 2015, the average age was 70.6 years for retirees and years for survivors and beneficiaries.

5. Disbursements
$905 million of disbursements paid out of the Plan in 2015, including monthly pension benefits of $764 million, lump-sum payments of $99 millions* and allowable expenses of $42 million**.
* Includes DB benefits paid upon death, termination of employment, divorce or separation, and DC lump-sum withdrawals
** Includes fees for investment management, trustees, auditing, and longevity swap management

6. Funding the Pension
In 2015, Bell Canada and the other participating companies contributed a total of $462.8 millions to pension funding
$385.8 million to the DB arrangement ($132.0 million of normal cost, $35.2 million of deficit funding and $218.6 million of advance pension contribution)
$77.7 million to the DC arrangement.
As December 31, 2015 the estimated minimum funding for 2016 is $439 millions
As of December 31, 2015, Bell has $219 million of unused advanced contributions that are available to be used to satisfy the deficit amortization requirements of $220 million

7. Actuarial Valuations of the Plan
Two Actuarial Valuations
Solvency Liabilities
Considers obligations of a pension plan, assuming that it is terminated as of the date of the actuarial valuation and based on current economic and demographic parameters.
Deficit of ($997.9M) (Ratio of 93.8%; 3 year average ratio of 93.2%)
Going-Concern
Considers obligations of the plan assuming that it will continue to operate indefinitely.
Surplus of $977.6M (ratio of 107.1%)

8. Historical Valuation Results
Solvency
Tests whether the plan has sufficient assets to pay all benefits that have been earned by members to that date.
Going-Concern
The purpose of a going-concern valuation is to recommend the orderly funding of a plan to accumulate assets to provide for the plan’s benefits in advance of their actual payment.

9. Plan Asset Allocation Strategy
Strategy is to manage the Master Trust Fund with a conservative asset mix with a view to minimizing funding volatility
Bell has gradually reduced the equity weight in the BCE Master Trust Fund in favour of fixed income securities
Asset allocation for the BCE Master Trust Fund is currently 70% fixed income and 30% equities
Assets invested to match characteristics of liabilities in terms of interest-rate sensitivity

10. Recent Plan Performance
BIMCOR

11. The audit process helps protect our pension funds from fraud
Retirees Audit
2016 audit of 10,000 retirees
3 mailings done in April (initial letter), in June (reminder) and in August (final reminder)
94% completed
3.5% not correctly completed
Forms received with missing information (retiree signature, witness section, etc...)
2.5% not received
Researching for those with invalid addresses
Possibility of temporary suspension of payments starting in November
An electronic audit form has been introduced in order to ease the process
Available on the Bell In Touch site
More than 3,100 pensioners used it
Audit Year
2015
2016
Population
~ 10,000
Temporary suspended pension
(from November)
246 …
Outstanding cases 34
As of 2016/09/29
The audit process helps protect our pension funds from fraud

12. The PIC Report
The 2016 Pension Information Committee Report provides the pension fund status as of December 31, It will be available on both the InTouch and Benefits Websites by early of November and will be mailed, if requested.

13. Questions