Blake Hutcheson
Blake Hutcheson Have you noticed anything different in connection with your myOMERS experience lately? Hopefully you have, because we successfully went live with a new platform in July. After a lot of hard work by many of our people over the past several months, this change puts us in a position from which we can improve your digital experience significantly. We are really trying to get this right – to better serve all of you!

We are entering the era of constant improvement – at times even daily. Standing still is not “good enough”. At OMERS we have a strong platform on which we can build, and we will keep both building and improving. That is our commitment to you. Please keep checking back for a useful, usable and hopefully enjoyable way to engage with your pension!
On the topic of personal improvement, my team here encouraged me to share a story about my dad. He is 93 years old (September baby) and “still going strong”! In fact, this summer he went both Heli-skiing and waterskiing. The Heli-ski feat took place in British Columbia and the water ski triumph in our hometown of Huntsville, Ontario. We are now assessing whether he qualifies for breaking two Guinness World Records – within days of each other. He is an inspiration to our family and reminds all of us to continue to stretch our limits.

His story also makes me think of many of our retired members. We have over 90 members who are over 100 years old. Our oldest member is 107. Many of these terrific individuals remain vital, engaged and in good health. This trend will only get more pronounced in the future.

When you consider that our youngest member is 16, it becomes clear that our members’ relationship with OMERS, and with many of us personally, is unlike almost any other in business or community life. Once we take a member on board for our plan, this relationship will last for the rest of their life, usually several decades. What an opportunity for us to get this relationship right, respect it at every age and stage, and improve it with every interaction and opportunity.

Bill Gates was right when he said, “most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” We are in the long-game, in how we invest and how we build lifelong relationships with our members.

To help us improve, we are also conducting an annual member engagement survey. Please take a few short minutes to take the survey in this issue. Your feedback helps us make OMERS more relevant, meaningful, and engaging … for you and hopefully for all our members. With that in mind, we hope you enjoy everything this newsletter, myOMERS, and your pension has to offer. A defined benefit pension plan is part of the fabric of the career decisions and contributions that you have made! You have earned it. Enjoy it.

As always, it is a pleasure working for you.



Blake Hutcheson
President and Chief Pension Officer, OMERS