ACPM urges Ottawa to ease disclosure rules and modernize communication under PBSA
The Association of Canadian Pension Management (“ACPM”) is calling on the federal government to amend the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985 (“PBSA”) to ease plan administrators’ disclosure requirements to spouses and facilitate electronic communications with plan beneficiaries.
In a submission to the Department of Finance, the ACPM said its proposed amendments are relatively simple fixes to the PBSA that would facilitate the administration of federally regulated pension plans, while proving beneficial to many pension plan members, retirees, and their spouses.
The PBSA generally requires plan administrators to provide information to both members and their spouses, but the ACPM noted that this is in practice problematic because administrators don’t have direct relationships with spouses and can’t always confirm who qualifies as a spouse.
The ACPM recommends reversing the onus under the PBSA, so that plan administrators are only obligated to provide copies of documents upon request from a spouse or common-law partner of a member or former member.
On the issue of member communication, the ACPM noted that 2010 amendments to the PBSA allowed plan administrators to stop sending written mail when members opt in to electronic forms of delivery. However, the ACPM submission notes that the active consent requirement has limited sponsors’ ability to make the switch to electronic communication with members and their spouses.
Instead of requiring member consent on an opt-in basis, the ACPM recommends that the PBSA regulations be amended to introduce deemed consent permitting electronic communications, so that members and former members must opt out and specifically request paper correspondence.
Click on ‘More Information’ below to review the submission:
