Update to federal pension rules may relieve solvency funding issues for plan sponsors

The federal government is looking to update the Pension Benefits Standards Regulations, 1985 with the intention to help plan sponsors locate lost beneficiaries and simplify plan wind ups. Comments for the draft amendments to the federal pension rules have been solicited, and if approved and finalized, the legislation could possibly come into force by the end of the year.

Partner in the firm’s Pensions and Employment group Stephanie Kalinowski is excited about this new development. She told Benefits and Pensions Monitor that missing members have become more and more of a challenge as plans have to spend time and money on trying to locate them.

“Sometimes these members have very small balances because they've terminated 30 years ago and completely forgotten that they had this little pension entitlement at their former employer,” she added.

“And missing members can delay the completion of the wind up which, unfortunately, many defined benefits plan employers are pursuing and have been pursuing over the last number of years.”

Stephanie noted that this draft legislation would provide regulatory relief and “help plan administrators deal with these missing members.”

“If [this legislation] goes forward, initially it would only be applicable to federally regulated plans, but there's always the hope that other provinces might be able to piggyback on to this. Once there's a system in place, then it makes it a little easier to open it up to other jurisdictions,” she said.

You can read more about our Pensions and Employment work on our practice page.

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