On August 7, 2014, Benefits and Pensions Montior cited Hicks Morley’s recent FTR Now entitled “Budget Bill Includes Carrigan Pre-Retirement Death Benefit Fix.” This FTR Now discusses the July 24, 2014 amendments to the Pension Benefits Act (Ontario) which are intended to address the impact of the Ontario Court of Appeal’s 2012 decision in Carrigan v. Carrigan Estate. The amendments clarify the…
Tag: Pre-Retirement Death Benefits
The Ontario Court of Appeal Confirms Pension Assignments must be “Clear and Unambiguous”
In a marriage breakdown situation where family assets are being valued and/or divided, a member’s workplace pension entitlements are often the most significant asset. To settle the property issues, a member and his or her spouse may agree that the member will assign an interest in the member’s benefit to the spouse. Unfortunately, it is…
Supreme Court Denies Leave in Carrigan
The Supreme Court of Canada will not be providing further clarification regarding the administration of pre-retirement death benefits under section 48 of the Ontario Pension Benefits Act (“PBA”). Today, the Court denied leave to appeal in Quinn v. Carrigan. As first discussed in our FTR Now “Ontario Court of Appeal Decision Rewrites the Pension Pre-Retirement…
Ontario Court of Appeal Decision Rewrites the Pension Pre-Retirement Death Benefit Regime
On October 31, 2012, a majority of the Ontario Court of Appeal awarded the pre-retirement death benefit payable under an Ontario registered pension plan to a member’s designated beneficiaries rather than to his common law spouse. The majority’s decision in Carrigan v. Carrigan Estate (“Carrigan”) is a departure from the pension industry’s widely held interpretation…
A Roadmap to Federal Pension Reform
On April 1, 2011, amendments to the Pension Benefits Standards Regulations (“PBSR“) came into effect that alter the rules regarding the funding and operation of pension plans governed by the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985 (“PBSA“). Since 2009, the Federal Government has taken a number of steps to reform the PBSA and the PBSR. This…