Letter from the President and CEO 

With that in mind, OMERS is entering 2025 well-positioned for the year ahead and remains focused on the things we can control, particularly our commitment to you, our 640,000 members: to deliver a secure, stable and meaningful income in your retirement. 

I am also happy to share with you today that our Plan generated strong results in 2024 with an investment return of 8.3%, or $10.6 billion, net of expenses, exceeding our 7.5% benchmark for the year. Net assets at December 31, 2024 grew to $138.2 billion from $128.6 billion in 2023.

Our strong result in 2024 reflects the quality of our people and portfolio, our active strategic decisions and our steady progress as a long-term investor. I am incredibly proud of the work of our leaders and their teams, as well as the forward-thinking strategies that we have implemented over the last four years as we emerged from the difficult pandemic market dislocation. This combination has generated an average annual net return of 8.1% during that period. Further, our 10-year result of 7.1% speaks to our ability to invest through turbulent times while consistently delivering for our members, paying pensions on time and as planned, as we have done every year since our founding in 1962. 

While we have key investments across the globe that continue to serve us well, I want to remind you that we are proudly Canadian with many high-quality and treasured investments here at home as well. A few of our Canadian holdings include: the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto; Teranet, Ontario’s and Manitoba’s land registry system; Bruce Power, the world’s largest nuclear power facility, generating 31% of this province’s electricity; Banff Springs and Chateau Lake Louise Hotels in Alberta; and The Stack, a carbon neutral award-winning new office tower that our real estate arm, Oxford Properties, built in Vancouver. These are all significant contributors to their local communities, bring us pride and are globally recognized examples of our Canadian know-how, innovation and commitment. You should be proud that OMERS positively impacts one in 11 Ontario households and our members and retirees are significant drivers of the Ontario economy. 

The following provides an overview of some other key financial, sustainability and service level highlights for 2024:

Financial highlights

As stated above, our Plan generated a 2024 investment return of 8.3%, or $10.6 billion, net of expenses, growing OMERS net assets to $138.2 billion as at December 31, 2024. Over the past 10 years, OMERS has averaged an annual investment return of 7.1%, net of expenses, adding $70.5 billion of value to the Plan. 

The Plan reported a smoothed funded status of 98%, up from 97% in 2023. This includes reducing our discount rate (which has the effect of increasing our liabilities) from 3.75% to 3.70%, which means we are prudently making our Plan assumptions more conservative.  

Our actions to diversify our portfolio, by asset classes and geography, positioned the Plan well in 2024. OMERS public equity investments delivered double-digit performance supported by strong contributions from public and private credit, private equity and infrastructure. Our net investment results benefited from our active strategy to maintain currency exposure to the U.S. dollar. Our real estate assets continue to generate strong operating income but returns were held back due to persistent lower valuations within this sector globally. Our asset mix continued to allocate more towards fixed income opportunities, where return potential remained attractive, with lower risk, on both an absolute and relative basis. Learn more in the press release. 

Sustainability highlights

As we continue to advance in becoming a leader in sustainable investing, we are on track to achieve net zero carbon emissions in our investment portfolio and operations by 2050. As you may recall, we committed to reducing our portfolio carbon footprint by 20% by 2025 and 50% by 2030, using 2019 levels as a base. This year, I am pleased to report that OMERS achieved a 58% reduction in its portfolio carbon emissions intensity, relative to 2019, and reported an increase in green investments to $23 billion. We remain committed to those goals and practices. For more information on how we define green investments, please refer to the OMERS Climate Taxonomy.  

Service level highlights

Our Pensions team of more than 400 professionals is deeply committed to serving our members and employers, and I am happy to report that we achieved our highest-ever Member Service Satisfaction Rating of 96% for the second year in a row! We are grateful for the trust you put in us as we continue to modernize to serve you better.  

I was very happy to see our services to members continue to advance and improve. That is always our goal and priority. We have been simplifying more of our processes so that when you retire, or make any other career movement, your pension changes are seamless and automated. Our education team continues to connect with members and employers across the province, and this year we launched a new education session, Preparing for your 100-year life, focused on helping members prepare for longer and happier retirements.

As OMERS CEO, one of the highlights of my year is travelling around the great province of Ontario to meet our members, the hardworking heartbeat of our communities. It is always a pleasure to connect with you in person and hear your thoughts on how we are doing and how we can better serve you. We are here to support you at every stage of your career and pension journey, from hire to retire — and beyond! Thank you for your hospitality and inspiration. It is a real privilege to work with and for all of you. 

Closing thoughts

As we look to the future, we are steadfast in our view that quality people, assets and strategies will see us through an unpredictable global landscape and any cycle that comes our way in the future. Within this context, we have established a detailed 2030 Strategy for OMERS. Five overriding points that provide us with a North Star through 2030 for our future are:

• We will be 100%+ funded

• We will have $200+ billion in net assets

• We will be relentlessly focused on investing in 3 strategic geographies: North America, United Kingdom/Europe and Asia Pacific

• We will have grown a global portfolio of approximately $400+ billion in assets under management (our equity plus, and third-party capital)

• We will deliver a long-term average 5%+ real return which is equivalent to a nominal return in the 7% to 8% range, which reflects our historical achievements.

These are ambitious but achievable goals to ensure that we are well-positioned financially, operationally and service-wise for the long term. I encourage you to read more about our 2030 Strategy in OMERS 2024 Annual Report, which will be released on February 28. It is written with all of you in mind. 

Thank you again for the work you do to keep Ontario’s communities vibrant, healthy and safe. We are honoured to work on your behalf and will continue to ensure that we can provide a secure and stable income for all of you in your retirement, whenever that may be.

I look forward to seeing many of you at OMERS Annual Meeting on April 9, whether it be in-person or virtually, or sometime soon during one of my visits to communities across Ontario. Until then, I wish you and your families all the best for 2025 and beyond. 

Sincerely,

Blake Hutcheson

OMERS 2024 financial results

As communicated in the Letter from OMERS President and CEO Blake Hutcheson, the Plan generated a 2024 investment return of 8.3%, net of expenses, adding $10.6 billion of investment income to the Plan, growing OMERS net assets to $138.2 billion as at December 31, 2024. 

Over the past 10 years, OMERS has earned an average return of 7.1%, net of expenses, adding $70.5 billion to the Plan. 

We are looking forward to sharing our 2024 Annual Report, which details our performance for the year and provides highlights of the incredible work OMERS is doing on behalf of its members. Visit omers.com on February 28 for the full report. 

Pension Awareness Day 

OMERS recognized Pension Awareness Day on February 20 by hosting an introductory webinar to support members’ career and pension journeys, from hire to retire — and beyond. This lunch-hour session covered the fundamentals of an OMERS pension and key features of the Plan. It also gave an overview of how other retirement income sources, including the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS), can work together with your OMERS pension to provide a solid retirement income foundation.  

Almost 15,000 members signed up for the webinar to take charge of their financial future and get their most pressing retirement questions answered by our team of pension experts.

For additional information about your pension, register for an upcoming in-person session or webinar on our Information sessions & webinars page. 

Ongoing improvements to your pension statement 

In 2024, we launched a significantly modernized pension statement for all members.

The purpose behind modernization was to help you make more informed choices about your pension at every stage of your life. Now you can see all of your important pension information at a glance. With your valuable feedback, we accomplished this by prioritizing key information, simplifying terminology and incorporating a new layout and design to promote understanding.

With a commitment to continuously improving how we serve you, we are now building on the success of last year’s updates with additional changes to the 2024 pension statements for working members, which you will receive by email or mail between now and the end of June, if you haven’t received it already.

The most crucial changes to highlight are on page two:

• Including the name of your spouse on record. For some members, spousal information may not be on file or may be out-of-date. See our Member FAQs if your pension statement doesn’t show a spouse on record. You can easily update this information directly in your myOMERS account or by contacting OMERS Member Experience.

• Providing a clearer picture of survivor benefits, with both a personalized overview and a more fulsome, plain language explanation of how survivor benefits work.

We hope these changes help you navigate retirement planning with more clarity and confidence.

For your information

Estimate the cost of your buy-back 

The Buy-Back Estimator will provide you with the estimated cost to purchase your previous service. It allows you to input variables such as your salary and how much service you intend to purchase and lets you save up to five estimates to help you review all of your options. 

Confirm your service 

After estimating the cost of your buy-back using the Buy-Back Estimator, you will need to confirm your service using the Service Confirmation tool if you decide to move forward with the purchase. The process includes answering a few questions, including the period of service that you intend to buy back and how long you worked for your previous employer, and completing the required forms. After you submit, OMERS will be in touch to let you know if the service is available to purchase. 

Get started with these Buy-back tools in myOMERS today to help you maximize your pension! 

T4A in myOMERS 

If you contributed to an Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC) account by pre-authorized debit or received a monthly OMERS pension payment in 2024, you will be able to view and print your tax slip through your myOMERS account by the end of February. We will also mail your pension tax slip to your home.  

To access your T4A, follow these steps:   

1. Log in to your myOMERS account  

2. On your dashboard, click “View reports & statements”  

3. On the right side of the page, click on the “Reprint income tax slips” button  

4. Select T4A and print  

Save more for retirement with AVCs 

As an OMERS Plan member, you have the exclusive opportunity to save more for retirement through the Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC) program. Similar in some ways to RRSPs, AVCs allow you to invest in the OMERS Fund, the same fund that your pension is invested in. An AVC account is separate from your defined benefit pension and is offered on a cost-recovery basis, which means no profit margin is built into the calculation of the fees and expenses. 

You can contribute to an AVC account through: 

• Fund transfers: You can make lump-sum transfers during the annual transfer-in window between January 1 and June 30 until the year you turn 70. Fund transfers to your AVC account may come from an RRSP, a locked-in retirement account (LIRA) or other registered retirement vehicles. 

• Automatic contributions: If you are a working member, you can make automatic contributions via preauthorized debit from your bank account or payroll deductions (if your employer offers this service) to the end of the year you turn 70. Visit our webpage on AVCs to find out your automatic contribution limits. Log in to myOMERS to start, stop or modify your automatic contributions at any time. 

To learn more and discover whether AVCs are right for you, attend one of our upcoming webinars: 

• Tuesday, March 4 | 4:30 - 5 p.m. ET 

• Wednesday, March 19 | 12:00 - 12:30 p.m. ET 

Expectant parents wanted!

If you are working during this time (for example, you are pregnant and planning for your parental leave this year), OMERS can come to your workplace and we are also open to other locations. If you will be on leave during this time, our photographers will come to you and your new child — either at your home or a suitable location nearby, such as a park. Of course, if you have other children, they as well as partners are welcome to take part!    

Participants will be gifted a selection of the best photographs taken by our professional photographer. If you are interested in this opportunity, please complete this form or share this information with any of your colleagues who may be interested. OMERS will be in touch with selected participants by email.   

Join CoCreate and help us improve member experience 

Do you want to help us make your OMERS and retirement experience even better? CoCreate is an active research community for OMERS members to provide feedback on the development of new products and services through focus groups, workshops, surveys and interviews.  

Participation is voluntary and not everyone who signs up will be contacted. Your insights will play a vital role in enhancing our services to provide the best member experience possible.  

Sign up on the CoCreate website or under the communications preferences section of your myOMERS account. 

Get answers to your pension questions

Your OMERS pension is one of your greatest retirement assets and it’s never too early to learn more about it. Our Pension Education & Relationship Management team can answer any questions you may have throughout your pension journey, from hire to retire – and beyond!  

Register for an upcoming webinar or in-person session on the information sessions and webinars page on our member site. Secure your spot soon because space is limited!