OPTrust’s investment return for 2016 decreased to six per cent, compared to its return of eight per cent in 2015. Its 2016 funded status report, released on Monday, shows the fund outperformed its actuarially projected discount rate of 5.5 per cent. It also outperformed its benchmarks in its alternative asset classes, which are internally managed. […]
In a case with significant consequences for Canadian employers and workers that has echoes of the saga involving Nortel Networks Corp., the British Columbia Supreme Court will soon consider whether U.S. pension funds can assert claims over the assets of insolvent Canadian companies. “It’s important for both employers and employees to be aware when American pension […]
More than a year after its implementation, Quebec’s shift to going-concern funding obligations for defined benefit pension plans has already led to some positive results for employers. “On average, in our experience, employers’ costs have been reduced by 40 per cent,” says Natasha Monkman, a pension and benefits lawyer at Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie […]
With the taxation of certain annuity payments affected by impending changes to Canadian tax rules, employers that offer supplementary pension benefit plans may wish to annuitize current and deferred pensioners before the end of the year. Effective Jan. 1, 2017, the Income Tax Act will incorporate updated mortality tables, established in 2000, for the purpose […]
Ontario legislation creating a new pension regulator and giving it powers to impose administrative monetary penalties will create an environment with considerably more regulatory muscle, pension lawyers say. “My suspicion is that we’re going to see a very different regulator,” says Paul Litner, a partner at Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto. “The combined effect […]
Employers across the country are keeping a close eye on New Brunswick, as the province becomes the legal battleground where decisions on the scope of the right to convert defined benefit pension plans into target benefit plans will likely play out. “The judge in our case has already acknowledged that all eyes in Canada are […]
The trend away from defined benefit to defined contribution or hybrid pension plans has heightened the litigation risk for employers when it comes to the duty to explain the changes to their employees. It’s not a new issue but it’s one that goes beyond pension plans to include a duty to properly communicate employee benefits […]
As the drive towards target-benefit pension plans continues to make headway in Canada, litigation risk for their sponsors is on the rise. The jurisprudence is still embryonic in Canada but it’s instructive. “Canadian stakeholders need to examine the jurisprudence to get an indication of the trends and concerns that may affect them,” says Kathryn Bush, […]