Essential Tasks of Pension and Benefit Plan Trustees

February 21, 2024 at 9:00AM PST

Downtown Vancouver and Live Webinar

Essential Tasks of Pension and Benefit Plan Trustees

February 21, 2024

Overview

As a trustee, it is essential that you understand your legal duties, what to watch out for, and how to limit your exposure to liability. In these unprecedented times, the task is more challenging than ever.

To this end, this conference assembles leading experts to educate you on your legal duties as a trustee and how to protect yourself, to update you on recent changes in the law, and to provide you with best practices and practical advice to assist you in creating successful and sustainable plans.

Whether you are newly appointed or a more experienced trustee, this conference is designed to equip you with the tools required to successfully fulfill your duties and to assist in creating and maintaining successful and sustainable plans.

You Will Learn About:

  • The keys to being an effective pension and benefit plan trustee

  • Your responsibilities as a trustee and how to protect yourself from liability

  • Recent legal developments in both the regulatory and judicial realms

  • What to know about Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) Services

  • Human rights matters in plans

  • An update from the BC Financial Services Authority

  • A case study on the BC Public Service Plan’s recent redesign

Who Should Attend:

  • Pension and benefit plan trustees

  • Pension consultants, investment professionals, lawyers and other advisors

  • Actuaries

  • Insurance professionals

Agenda

9:00 - Welcome and Introduction by PBLI

9:05 - Chair’s Welcome and Introduction

Murray Campbell
Lawson Lundell LLP

9:10 - Being an Effective Pension and Benefit Trustee: Responsibilities and Protections

Lisa Chamzuk
Lawson Lundell LLP

  • What is a trust?

  • Trust law as it applies to pension and benefit plans

  • Trustees’ duties

  • Liability for other trustees’ actions

  • Use of professional advisors

  • Protecting trustees

10:10 - Questions and Discussion

10:20 - Morning Break

10:35 - Recent Legal Developments

Murray Campbell
Lawson Lundell LLP

  • Latest pension and benefits case law and statutory developments

11:20 - Questions and Discussion

11:30 - Monitoring the Performance of Outsourced Chief Investment Officers (OCIOs)

Johan Kriek
PBI Actuarial Consultants Inc.

  • Considerations, challenges, and importance of monitoring OCIO services for Pension and H&W Plans

  • Measuring and monitoring OCIO services for Pension and H&W Plans

  • Measuring investment performance against benchmarks

  • Setting objectives for the OCIO

12:20 - Questions and Discussion

12:30 - Lunch Break

1:30 - Human Rights Issues in Pension and Benefit Plans

Meghan Popp
Lawson Lundell LLP

  • Gender issues

  • Age discrimination in disability plans

  • Religious beliefs and investing practices

2:15 - Questions and Discussion

2:25 - Afternoon Break

2:40 - New Guidelines on Risk Management: What It Means for Plans

Sonya Tomin
BC Financial Services Authority

  • Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities (CAPSA) guidelines on risk management

3:25 - Questions and Discussion

3:35 - Case Study: The Public Services Pension Plan Redesign

Tom Vincent
Public Service Pension Board of Trustees

  • Pension plan resign experience

  • Lessons learned and applied

4:20 - Questions and Discussion

4:30 - Networking Reception Sponsored by Lawson Lundell LLP



Meet the Chair

  • Partner, Lawson Lundell LLP, Vancouver, BC

    Mr. Campbell practises exclusively in the pension and employee benefits area, and is the head of his firm’s Pension and Employee Benefits Group. He is legal counsel for over two dozen multi-employer pension and health and welfare plans in BC and Saskatchewan. He has advised on many disputes relating to pension and benefit plans, and is involved in all manners of compliance and governance issues arising out of the administration of such plans. He is a frequent speaker on pension and benefit issues.

Meet the Faculty

  • Partner, Lawson Lundell LLP, Vancouver, BC

    Lisa is a partner in the firm’s Pensions and Employee Benefits Group and Protection of Privacy and Freedom of Information Group. She represents boards of trustees and corporate plan sponsors in both the public and private sector and in a wide variety of industries. Lisa regularly advises boards of trustees and other sponsors of pension and employee benefit plans in respect of the interpretation and amendment of plan texts, the application of the governing legal principles and of provincial and federal legislation. She often prepares formal opinions for her clients advising on proposed courses of action in light of the governing legal principles. Lisa is particularly familiar with the provincial and federal privacy legislation as they apply to pension and employee benefit plans and has drafted privacy policies for a number of her clients.

  • Investment Consultant, PBI Actuarial Consultants, Vancouver, BC

    Johan is a consultant with PBI and has 18 years of investment and consulting experience. Before joining PBI he worked with Sun Life Financial building bespoke interest rate risk management strategies while servicing existing liability-driven investment clients. Before immigrating to Canada he worked both in the UK and South Africa as an investment consultant in addition to various roles at asset management businesses. Johan is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (FIA), a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa (FASSA) and CFA Charterholder (CFA) and holds a Bachelor of Business Science degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Cape Town.

  • Partner, Lawson Lundell LLP, Vancouver, BC

    Meghan is a partner in Lawson Lundell’s Pension and Employee Benefits Group. She acts for boards of trustees and other sponsors of pension and benefit plans in the private and public sectors in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Meghan works with both single employer plans and trusteed multi-employer plans across a wide range of industries, providing advice in respect of the legal and regulatory issues that impact these plans. She advises on issues that arise in the day to day administration of plans, as well as assisting with larger projects such as plan mergers and reorganizations. She prepares and amends plan texts, trust agreements, policies and governance materials. She also negotiates a variety a plan-related contracts, including fiduciary liability insurance policies, custodian agreements, confidentiality agreements, investment management agreements and letters of credit. She regularly works with the Financial Institutions Commission of B.C. and other regulatory agencies through her practice.

  • Director of Pensions, BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA), Vancouver, BC

    Sonya Tomin joined the BC Financial Services Authority in September 2023 as Director of Pensions, leading a team responsible for the supervision of over 600 pension plans in B.C. Sonya spent many years working as a pension actuary in the private sector in Vancouver and Calgary, including roles with Mercer, Aon and Eckler. She moved to Vancouver Island in 2009 and joined the BC Public Service, spending 13 years in various roles - at BC Stats as a lead for workforce planning across the BC Public Service and later leading teams in the analytics division of the Ministry of Health. Most recently, Sonya worked as a Corporate Actuary with the BC Pension Corporation. She holds a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (FCIA) designation.

  • Chair, BC Public Service Pension Plan Board of Trustees, Victoria, BC

    Tom Vincent was appointed to the BC Public Service Pension Plan Board of Trustees by the provincial government and has worked in the area of pensions for 24 years. He has been a member of the Teachers' Pension Board of Trustees and, before joint trusteeship, was a member of the Municipal Pension Advisory Board. He also served as chair of the Medical Services Commission and on the board of the Irving K. Barber BC Scholarship Society as well as several employer associations. He has served as vice-president of the Public Sector Employers’ Council, assistant deputy minister with the ministries of Advanced Education and Education, and provincial co-chair of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Assistant Deputy Ministers’ Committee on Student Financial Assistance. Tom has also worked at Treasury Board Staff and the BC Ministry of Health.


Registration Form

Program:

Essential Tasks of Pension and Benefit Plan Trustees 2024

Date:

February 21, 2024

Location:

UBC Robson Square (800 Robson Street - Classroom level), Vancouver, BC

Registration:

The registration fee is $845.00 plus GST of $42.25 totalling $887.25 for webinar and in-person attendance. Registration fee covers your attendance at the program and electronic materials. In-person attendance includes a catered lunch and refreshments throughout the day.

Early Bird Discount:

Register by January 24th, 2024 and receive a $100 discount on the registration fee ($745.00 plus GST). Discounts cannot be combined.

Group Discount:

Register four persons from the same organization at the same time and you are entitled to a complimentary fifth registration. Discounts cannot be combined.

If you would like to register a group, please fill out this form and email it to registrations@pbli.com:

DOWNLOAD FORM

Payment:

You may pay by VISA, Mastercard or cheque. Cheques should be made payable to the Pacific Business & Law Institute and mailed to Unit 2-2246 Spruce Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 2P3. Please do not send cheques via courier with signature required.

When and Where:

Check-in begins at 8:30 a.m. The program starts at 9:00 a.m. (PDT). UBC Robson Square is located at 800 Robson Street in Vancouver, BC, and our event will take place on the classroom level. Please visit https://robsonsquare.ubc.ca/find-us/ for directions.

Materials:

The faculty will prepare papers and/or other materials explaining many of the points raised during this program. Materials will be distributed electronically. Please contact us at registrations@pbli.com if you are unable to attend the program and wish to purchase a set of materials.

Cancellations/Transfers:

Refunds will be given for cancellations (less a $60.00 administration fee) if notice is received in writing five full business days prior to the program (February 14, 2024). After that time we are unable to refund registration fees. Substitutions will be permitted. We reserve the right to cancel, change or revise the date, faculty, content, availability of webinar or venue and transfer in-person registration to webinar registration for this event.

To register by phone:

Telephone us: 604-730-2500

Your Privacy:

We will keep all information that you provide to us in strict confidence, other than to prepare a delegate list containing your name, title, firm and city for our faculty and the program delegates. We do not share our mailing lists with any non-affiliated organization.

Course Accreditation:

Attendance at this course can be listed for up to 6 hours of continuing professional development credits with the Law Society of BC. For practitioners in other jurisdictions, please check your governing body’s CPD requirements.


If you would like to register a group, please fill out this form (DOWNLOAD FORM) and email it to registrations@pbli.com (*This form is for registrations of 5 or more and cannot be combined with any other promotions/discount codes.)

For individual registration, please continue with form below.