2013 Ontario Government Budget Provisions Affecting Pensions

PENSION REFORMS UNDERWAY

The Ontario government stated its intention to:

• Review the Ontario Court of Appeal's recent ruling regarding spousal entitlements in the case of Carrigan v. Carrigan Estate, propose amendments to the Pension Benefits Act (PBA) and, if necessary, amend the regulations under the PBA. The Carrigan case overturned the commonly understood interpretation of the pre-retirement death benefit provisions under the PBA where the member has both a married spouse, with whom the member is no longer living but where a divorce has not been finalized, and a common law spouse. We will have to see how the government proposes to amend the PBA and whether both the plan administrator and the recipient of the payment will be fully protected from any challenge. We will be discussing this issue at our Seminar later this month.