Our Pension and Benefits Group

With sweeping reappraisals of retirement income and employee benefits arrangements taking place and significant changes on the horizon, national and international enterprises need innovative legal advisors on whom they can rely to provide multi-disciplinary solutions. The Pension and Benefits Group at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) is committed to working with you in every aspect of this complex area of law to help overcome the challenges you are facing by providing prompt, insightful and effective solutions. With a team that consists of lawyers from various disciplines, including corporate, litigation, tax, employment and financial services, the Pension and Benefits Group comes to the table with the knowledge and experience to meet your every need and unique problem.

As the largest full-service law firm in Canada, BLG acts for a range of participants in retirement income and employee benefits arrangements, including plan administrators, employers, boards of directors, trustees, regulators, investment managers and plan beneficiaries. And as active participants in professional organizations, industry groups and advocacy on law reform in the pension, benefits and investment fields, the Pension and Benefits Group has the expertise to act as your trusted and well-connected advisor.

Through offices in Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ottawa, Vancouver, Montréal and Calgary and our close working relationships with pension experts in other jurisdictions, the Pension and Benefits Group is experienced in advising on complex issues arising from multi-jurisdictional arrangements. BLG is particularly sensitive to the inter-relationship of Canadian arrangements with those in a global corporate group and recognizes the importance and expertise of in-house counsel and other professionals and service providers. The Pension and Benefits Group adopts a team approach in working with other professionals with a view to providing advice and service that meet your unique requirements.

Like you, BLG believes that nothing less than excellence will do. This commitment to service has resulted in the frequent recognition of many of our legal professionals at home and abroad. Professionals in BLG's Pension and Benefits Group were featured in the 2010 editions of Chambers Global – The World's Leading Lawyers, Best Lawyers in Canada^© and the Canadian Legal Lexpert^© Directory.

At BLG, it begins with service. Our passion, drive and performance are poured into everything we do.

Our Services

BLG's Pension and Benefits Group assists clients with a full range of services, including:

Plan Design: Structuring, reviewing and drafting pension and benefits plans and amendments; reviewing insurance policies relating to benefits plans.
Plan Administration: Advising on pension plan and pension fund governance (including fiduciary duties, proper delegation and statutory requirements); strategic advice and advocacy regarding legislative and regulatory reform; legal compliance audits of pension plans and pension funds; legal opinions concerning pension legislation, plan terms and rights of plan members; advising on family law issues concerning benefit entitlements; reviewing and drafting employee communications and advising on employment and labour issues.
Investments and Funding: Preparing investment agreements and policies; advising administrators on pension fund investment (including structuring and compliance); advising investment advisors and consultants on the regulation of the investment of pension fund assets and pension-eligible investment products (including innovative investments such as derivatives and hedge funds); reviewing and drafting funding agreements (including master trust agreements, pension trust agreements and insurance contracts); advising on funding requirements and funding relief; structuring and drafting locked-in retirement savings and income vehicles.
Plan Transactions: Mergers, demergers, terminations, wind-ups and transfers of jurisdiction of registration of pension plans; plan conversions; advising on entitlement to pension fund surplus and the recovery of surplus (including surplus sharing agreements and contribution holidays); payment of administrative expenses.
Corporate Transactions: Advising on pension and benefits issues in corporate transactions such as corporate reorganizations, business acquisitions, corporate restructuring and financing transactions.
Litigation: Acting for plan administrators, employers, boards of directors, trustees, regulators, investment managers and plan beneficiaries in court proceedings and before tribunals; negotiating with regulators; appearing before tribunals such as the Financial Services Tribunal on pension and benefits issues; acting for clients in class action lawsuits, actions and applications at all levels of court including the Supreme Court of Canada; civil litigation involving issues of negligence, breach of contractual and fiduciary duties, breach of trust and statutory compliance.
Tax: Advising on tax compliance issues relating to registered pension plans and supplemental pension plans; advising on tax implications of investments and of investment vehicles such as master trusts, pooled fund trusts and pension real estate corporations; providing tax advice on equity compensation arrangements (such as stock options and phantom stock plans) and on retirement income and savings vehicles such as deferred profit sharing plans, registered retirement savings plans, registered retirement income funds, registered education savings plans and tax-free savings accounts.

Representative Transactions

Representative transactions of the Pension and Benefits Group include:

Plan Design and Administration:

Acted for a national employer in preparing defined benefit pension plans and defined contribution pension plans.
Advised a plan administrator on administrative issues and errors such as unlocated beneficiaries, over-payments and under-payments of benefits, errors in calculation of benefits.
Advised a plan administrator regarding the design and implementation of a governance structure, including consolidation of the administration of several pension plans and delegation to affiliates.
Attended regular pension committee meetings.

Investments and Funding:

Acted for pension fund trustee in respect of solvency funding relief.
Acted for financial institutions in the preparation and filing of multi-jurisdictional endorsements relating to locked-in investment vehicles.
Acted for an employer in the consolidation of the investment of the pension funds of different pension plans.
Advised on the creation of pension-eligible investment products such as pooled funds and real estate funds.

Plan Transactions:

Acted for employer in a successful surplus withdrawal of more than $50 million from a continuing pension plan with more than 500 members in different provinces of Canada.
Advised employer and administrator in the transfer of jurisdictions of registration of various pension plans from provincial jurisdiction to federal jurisdiction and the drafting of plan texts for compliance.
Acted for employer in the conversion of a defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution pension plan.
Acted for an employer in a plan demerger resulting from a corporate spin-off.
Advised an employer on the wind-up of several defined contribution plans and the consolidation of its retirement savings arrangements.
Advised an employer regarding negotiation of a surplus sharing deal.

Corporate Transactions:

Advised a non-Canadian purchaser on the pensions and benefits aspects of a share acquisition of a business with a purchase price of more than $300 million.
Advised a financial institution on the pension and benefits risks relating to a financing transaction.
Advised a purchaser regarding the assumption of participation in a multi-employer pension plan.

Litigation:

Acted for an employer in the leading Supreme Court of Canada pension case regarding distribution of actuarial surplus on the partial wind-up of a pension plan.
Acted for an employer in a class action relating to the payment of administrative expenses out of its pension plan.
Acted for a plan administrator on issues relating to the division of pensions on marriage breakdown.
Acted for a not-for-profit organization with respect to deficit funding obligations of a participating employer in pension plan with multiple employers.
Acted for an investment advisor in a class action with respect to appropriateness of investment strategy in a multi-employer pension plan.
Acted for an employer to obtain court order relating to surplus entitlement for surplus withdrawal by an employer.

Tax:

Represented employers in resolving with the Canada Revenue Agency tax issues relating to registered pension plans.
Prepared for a major Canadian trust company standard form trust agreements for various types of tax-deferred plans and other arrangements.
Advised employers on tax-effective treatment of outstanding employee stock options in the context of takeover transactions.
Advised various clients on tax matters relating to resolution of stock options back-dating issues.
Prepared TFSA specimen plans and RESP specimen plans for major Canadian issuers.