Amendments to the Pension Benefits Standards Regulations, 1985 Effective July 1, 2016

A number of recent amendments to the Pension Benefits Standards Regulations, 1985 will come into force on July 1, 2016, including provisions regarding spousal consent to portability to certain registered retirement vehicles where a member is eligible for early retirement, investment rules, and disclosure requirements. Enhanced disclosure requirements include the following:

• Annual statements will now have to be provided to former members and their spouses or common-law partners.
• For defined benefit plans, annual member statements will now have to include more information on the solvency position of the plan and the amount of employer payments made to the plan for the year.
• For defined benefit and defined contribution plans where the administrator makes all investment decisions, annual member statements will now have to include a list of the pension funds' 10 largest asset holdings and the target asset allocation for the fund.
• For defined contribution plans which permit investment choices, specified information regarding investment options available will now have to be provided annually to those permitted to make those investment choices.
• Plan booklets and annual statements sent to members of negotiated contribution plans will now have to explain that contributions to these plans are limited and that this may lead to reductions in accrued benefits if the negotiated contributions are insufficient to meet the prescribed solvency standards.
• On plan termination, members, former members, and their spouses or common-law partners will now be entitled to receive a notice of the plan termination within 30 days of the plan termination date. Administrators will now have 120 days from the plan termination date to provide the detailed benefit statements to these recipients.

Annual statements due to be issued to members before July 1, 2016 are not required to reflect the new disclosure requirements.

For further details regarding amendments coming into force on July 1, 2016, please refer to the Key PBSA/PBSR Amendments and In Force Dates chart on the OSFI website. You may also wish to consult OSFI's Recorded Webinar – Key Amendments to the PBSR.

In order to comply with the new rules on July 1, 2016, plan administrators should ensure that pension administration staff are aware of these changes and that plan documents have been amended, as necessary.