The British Columbia Supreme Court’s recent decision in Jarman v. Jarman raises important jurisdictional issues for administrators of supplemental retirement plans (SRPs), confirming that these plans may be subject to provincial family law legislation in circumstances involving the marriage breakdown of a member of the plan.
Continue Reading...If you are like most 401(k) or pension plan administrators, you have procedures for participants to request plan documents and forms. They may be as simple as requiring document requests to be sent in writing to a designated employee.
Section 104(b)(4) of ERISA requires that certain plan documents, including summary plan descriptions and 5500’s, be provided to participants upon request. Failing to comply could result in a $110 per day penalty if a participant does not receive a requested document within 30 days and the plan administrator has no reasonable cause for the delay. But a recent case indicates that your exposure could be even broader.
Continue Reading...In response to Ontario’s new regime for dividing pensions on marriage breakdown, which permits the former spouse of a plan member to receive an immediate payment of his or her share of the member's pension and requires plan administrators to calculate the value of the pension, the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) has released draft versions of the prescribed forms that must be used in the pension division process.
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