Practice Profile
Pension, Benefits & Executive Compensation
Since employees are an integral part of any business, employee compensation is of strategic importance. Compensation comes in myriad forms, from defined benefit pension plans to group RRSPs, from stock option plans to stock appreciation rights, from cash remuneration to deferred income arrangements, from health care plans to flexible benefit plans. Employee compensation, properly aligned with business imperatives, can ensure a business’s success. Improperly planned compensation and pension and benefit plans can have a significantly negative effect on a business.
The Pension, Benefits & Executive Compensation (PB&EC) Group at Cassels Brock provides stand-alone advice and support to clients who are primarily interested in solving pension, benefits or executive compensation issues. Our lawyers will recommend corrective action to resolve current problems and creative solutions to deliver compensation and benefits on a cost effective basis.
To provide seamless service and deliver focused, business-driven advice with respect to employee compensation and benefit plans, our PB&EC Group will draw upon our tax, labour and employment, financial services, business reorganization and advocacy specialists. The PB&EC Group also provides support to the various other groups within the firm, when they require its members’ special expertise.
The PB&EC Group’s services include the following:
- Pension plan design and redesign
- Supplementary pension plan design and funding
- Design of non-pension deferred compensation arrangements
- Taxation and regulation of pension and benefit plans
- Advice on the termination or restructuring of pension and benefit plans
- Specialized tax advice on pension, benefits and compensation issues, including PST, GST, payroll and premium taxes
- Advice on funding of employee non-pension benefit plans
- Dealings with, and appearances before, pension regulatory authorities
- Governance and risk assessment of benefit plans
- Design of tax effective compensation arrangements
- Modification of health and benefit plans to deal with the abolition of mandatory retirement
- Advice on pension and benefit issues arising out of corporate mergers, acquisitions and reorganizations
Some examples of our recent work include:
- A governance review of a public sector multi-employer pension plan
- A legal risk analysis of a government-sponsored income support program
- The design of a tax effective funding mechanism for a long term disability plan provided by a municipal government
- The design, drafting and implementation of a funding vehicle for the supplementary pension plan of a large retailer
- The drafting and registration of pension plan texts for a large national manufacturer
- A comprehensive tax opinion for a multi-billion dollar multi-employer pension plan
- Advice on the application of United States ERISA rules to Canadian-based pension plans
- A tax opinion on the application of sales tax to benefit programs sponsored by a municipal government
- The tax effective design of a plan to wind up a funded supplementary pension plan sponsored by a Crown agency
- An appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal, on behalf of a plan sponsor, from a decision by the revenue authorities to deregister a registered pension plan
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