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September 25, 2012 – A C.D. Howe Institute study that concludes federal tax rules are preventing many Canadians – especially in the private sector – from saving enough for retirement, has won the 2012 John Hanson Memorial Prize from the Actuarial Foundation.

The Chicago-based Foundation bestowed the award for “Legal for Life: Why Canadians Need a Lifetime Retirement Saving Limit,” published by the C.D. Howe Institute in October, 2011.

“The paper shows convincingly how tax rules disadvantage savers outside defined-benefit plans, and presents an elegant solution that would make secure retirement more widely available,” said William B.P. Robson, President of the C.D. Howe Institute.

“It presents a Canadian pension policy problem and its solution in a way that is compelling to an international audience.”

The John Hanson Memorial Prize (named for a prominent American actuary with a distinguished record in pension and employee benefit issues) is awarded for the “best paper on an employee benefits topic.”

Robson congratulated the study’s authors, James Pierlot, a Principal and Lawyer with Pierlot Pension Law, and Faisal Siddiqi, a Principal and Consulting Actuary with Buck Consultants.

This is the third major award bestowed on a C.D. Howe Institute publication in 2012. Toward Improving Canada’s Skilled Immigration Policy by Charles M. Beach, Alan G. Green and Christopher Worswick won the 2012 Purvis Memorial Prize from the Canadian Economics Association and was also shortlisted for this year’s Donner Book Prize.

For more information on the Hanson Award, click here.

The C. D. Howe Institute is an independent not-for-profit research institute whose mission is to raise living standards by fostering economically sound public policies. It is Canada’s trusted source of essential policy intelligence, distinguished by research that is nonpartisan, evidence-based and subject to definitive expert review. It is considered by many to be Canada’s most influential think tank.

For more information contact: James Fleming, Editor, VP Media, C.D. Howe Institute. 416-865-1904; email:cdhowe@cdhowe.org