Pensions, employee benefits and executive compensation
DLA Piper Canada’s Pensions and Benefits Law practice advises clients in a range of industries on the legal and regulatory issues affecting their plans.
Services include:
- Providing legal services for jointly trusteed pension plans, public sector plans, negotiated (union sponsored) pension plans, employer-sponsored pension plans and pension regulators
- Working closely with employers, trade unions, consultants, and regulators concerning plan governance, fiduciary responsibilities, investments, income tax and other matters
- Advising and representing major pension funds and other clients on a variety of matters including governance, investments, tax and regulatory
- Providing pension plan advice to boards of trustees, employers, pension committees, boards of directors, professional associations and plan advisors and consultants
- The Pension and Benefits group is supported by experienced attorneys in other practice areas, such as Tax, Employment and Labour, and Litigation – all of whom have considerable experience in pension and benefits issues.
EMERGING ISSUES
- Staying informed of developments and trends enables us to provide well-rounded yet strategic counsel, particularly with regards to:
- Advising pension plan sponsors that are using non-traditional investments to ensure compliance with pension plans laws and regulations, appropriate oversight and reporting, and safeguarding of the plan investments
- Assisting plan sponsors with implementing their governance policies such that the goals of the policies are achieved
- Establishing private health services plans by non-traditional sponsors
- Ensuring that defined contribution (DC) plans meet the current regulatory requirements, and that DC plan members have the necessary information to make appropriate and informed investment choices
- Dealing with solvency and unfunded liability issues, particularly with those pension plans that are funded by collective agreements
Experience
- Pension plan funding and investment, including pension plan investments in private equity funds, hedge funds, real estate, and derivative based funds
- Establishing private health-services plans, both on an insured and self-funded basis for professional associations
- Taxation issues relating to private health-services plans and non-traditional pension plan investments, as well as general taxation advice for pension and benefit plans
- Pension plan governance and fiduciary obligations
- Pension plan termination and partial wind-up
- Family law (marriage breakdown and credit splitting)
- Pension plan design, including excess or supplementary pension (non-registered) plans
- Post-retirement benefits
- Dispute resolution and plan litigation and class action matters
