Ontario tribunal determines employer entitled to $320K pension surplus

By Julius Melnitzer | January 7, 2023

The Financial Services Tribunal of Ontario has allowed an employer to keep a $320,000 pension surplus, despite the plan’s trust agreements’ silence as to surplus entitlement.

“The requirements for an employer to receive 100 per cent of surplus are strict, but the tribunal took a practical [approach] as opposed to a narrow interpretive approach to the plan documents,” says Jennifer Agnew, a senior lawyer at Brown Mills Klinck Prezioso LLP, who represented the employer Crosby Canada Inc. before the tribunal.

While the plan text clearly stated Crosby was entitled to surplus, the trust agreements that funded the plan didn’t deal with surplus entitlement and some of them didn’t explicitly state that the plan text was part of the trust agreements. MORE

Julius Melnitzer is a Toronto-based legal affairs writer, ghostwriter, writing coach and media trainer. Readers can reach him at [email protected] or https://legalwriter.net/contact.

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