In an effort to provide further guidance to administrators of defined contribution (DC) pension plans, the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities (CAPSA) has released a draft “Defined Contribution Pension Plans Guideline” (the Guideline) for comment. The Guideline is intended to supplement existing CAPSA guidelines (i.e., Guideline No. 3 – Capital Accumulation Plans, Guideline No…. Continue Reading
Category Archives: DC Plans
Subscribe to DC Plans RSS FeedCAPSA Guidelines re Prudent Investments and Funding Policies
Posted in Canada Pensions & Benefits Law, DB Plan Funding, DC Plans, Investments, Plan AdministrationThe Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities (CAPSA) has been working away at providing pension plan administrators with guidance regarding pension plan investing and funding. As we reported earlier, CAPSA released draft guidelines this past spring. Those guidelines were released on November 15, 2011 in final form: Guideline No.6 – Pension Plan Prudent Investment Practices… Continue Reading
Federal Bill C-47 Receives Royal Assent
Posted in Canada Pensions & Benefits Law, DC Plans, Investments, Legislation & Regulations, Pension Reform, Plan AdministrationThe federal government announced that Bill C-47, which included another round of pension reform, received royal assent yesterday. As discussed in a prior post, Bill C-47 follows up on the Bill C-9 amendments to the federal Pension Benefits Standards Act (the PBSA) that were passed earlier this year. Perhaps the most interesting are amendments which purport to… Continue Reading
Bill 120 – Second Stage of Ontario Pension Reform – Receives Royal Assent
Posted in Canada Pensions & Benefits Law, DB Plan Funding, DC Plans, Legislation & Regulations, Pension Reform, Plan Administration, SurplusYesterday Bill 120, Securing Pension Benefits Now and for the Future Act, 2010, received royal assent. As discussed in previous posts (see October 22, October 29 and December 6, 2010 posts), Bill 120 made a number of significant changes to the Ontario Pension Benefits Act, including:
Federal Government Moves Ahead with Further Pension Reform
Posted in Canada Pensions & Benefits Law, DC Plans, Investments, Legislation & Regulations, Pension Reform, Plan AdministrationOn September 30, 2010, the federal government introduced Bill C-47, which makes further amendments in conjunction with this year’s budget, including another round of pension reform amendments. Among these, perhaps the most interesting are the amendments which purport to provide defined contribution (DC) plan administrators with a limited form of “safe harbour” from liability related… Continue Reading
Federal Government Introduces Pension Reform Amendments
Posted in Bankruptcy, Canada Pensions & Benefits Law, DB Plan Funding, DC Plans, Pension Reform, Plan Wind-UpsWith the introduction of Bill C-9 – this year’s budget bill – on March 29th, the federal government is beginning to move forward on a number of the pension reforms that it had announced last fall. For instance, Bill C-9 contains the increase to the Income Tax Act pension surplus threshold from 10% to 25%… Continue Reading
Mixed Result for CCWIPP Trustees in Pension Plan Investment Prosecution
Posted in Canada Pensions & Benefits Law, DC Plans, Investments, Plan AdministrationThe highly anticipated judgment of the Ontario Court of Justice in the Canadian Commercial Workers Industry Pension Plan (CCWIPP) trustee prosecution (PDF) was released on December 7th. The case centered on whether members of CCWIPP’s Board of Trustees, as administrator, and the Investment Committee (a subset of the Board of Trustees) breached their obligations under… Continue Reading
Le Ministère des Finances du Canada Publie Ses Propositions de Réforme des Régimes de Retraite
Posted in Canada Pensions & Benefits Law, DB Plan Funding, DC Plans, Pension Reform, Plan Wind-UpsThe following post is a French translation of Michel Benoit’s October 27, 2009 post "Pension Reform Proposals Released by Finance Canada". Le ministre fédéral des finances Jim Flaherty a publié une série de propositions en vue d’améliorer le cadre législatif et règlementaire des régimes de retraite privés assujettis à la juridiction fédérale. Aucune indication n’a… Continue Reading
Pension Reform Proposals Released By Finance Canada
Posted in Canada Pensions & Benefits Law, DB Plan Funding, DC Plans, Pension Reform, Plan Wind-UpsFinance Canada Minister Jim Flaherty released a series of proposals designed to improve the legislative and regulatory framework for federally regulated pension plans. No indication was given as to the timing of the amendments to the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985 (PBSA) and the Pension Benefits Standards Regulations, 1985 (PBSA Regulations) that will be required to… Continue Reading
Comments on OSFI’s Draft DC Disclosure Guidelines Due by Year End
Posted in Canada Pensions & Benefits Law, DC Plans, Regulator Policies & CommunicationsIt is common knowledge that pension legislation was drafted with defined benefit pension plans in mind and does not deal adequately with defined contribution pension plans. Until recently, the only regulatory guidance for DC plan sponsors was the CAPSA Guidelines for Capital Accumulation Plans (PDF) (CAP Guidelines). Now DC plan sponsors will have another resource – the Disclosure Guideline for… Continue Reading