A (Golden Hawk) Milestone: Laurier’s Strategic Conversion to the UPP
On January 1, 2026, Wilfrid Laurier University (“Laurier”) marked a significant milestone by becoming the sixth Ontario university to convert its single-employer pension plan to the University Pension Plan Ontario (“UPP”), a jointly sponsored pension plan (“JSPP”). The Laurier conversion is the largest since the UPP’s inception with over $1 billion of assets and liabilities transferred to the UPP.
The Laurier conversion was in the works for many years under the leadership of Pam Cant, Chief Human Resources and Equity Officer at Laurier. Pam explains that “Laurier was interested in continuing to provide a competitive and comprehensive defined benefit pension plan that was financially sustainable and secure into the future. The UPP provides a sustainable framework, with expanded opportunities for investment diversification and risk mitigation as well as centralized administration, which made it an attractive option.”
By way of background, a JSPP is a pension plan that is jointly sponsored by employers and plan members. Employers and plan members share responsibility for governance and decision making with respect to the plan’s design, contributions, and the appointment of the administrator. Employers and plan members also share the cost of funding benefits. Many of Ontario’s largest pension plans are JSPPs.
Under Section 80.4 of the Ontario Pension Benefits Act (the “PBA”), a single-employer pension plan like the Laurier Plan can be converted to a JSPP through a transfer of assets and liabilities.[1] At the conversion, members’ pension benefits earned both before and after conversion become payable from the JSPP.
Conversion is a strategic decision driven by several potential benefits, including support for the defined benefit pension model, stable contribution rates that can provide greater predictability for institutional operating budgets, economies of scale and operational efficiencies, potential access to higher-return investment strategies, and employee mobility between employers within sector-specific JSPPs.
In Laurier’s case, eligible employees were enrolled in the Wilfrid Laurier University Pension Plan (the “Laurier Plan”). Like many other Ontario university-sector plans, the Laurier Plan was a unique ‘hybrid’ arrangement that provided each member the greater of a minimum guaranteed defined benefit pension and the pension that could be provided by the member’s money purchase component account.
Once Laurier decided to move forward with the conversion, the real work began. The Laurier conversion was a multi-year process that required careful planning to account for the regulatory timelines required by the PBA and employment and labour law considerations. It also required a strong internal team with external legal and actuarial support.
Laurier kicked off its conversion process with an internal working group in which the key employee groups participated. As Pam remarks, “[o]ur internal working group was incredibly effective because it brought all of the key voices to the table early in the process. Having representatives from each employee group allowed us to surface questions quickly, build shared understanding, and work through issues collaboratively. That foundation set us up for success as we moved into the next phases of the conversion.”
Coming out of that collaborative process, Laurier and its union groups reached agreements to convert the Laurier Plan to the UPP. Laurier also took time and care to educate non-represented active members and inactive members on the proposed conversion to the UPP before proceeding with the regulatory conversion process.
Once agreements with the union groups were successfully reached, Laurier moved forward with the regulatory conversion process. The key highlights of the regulatory conversion process (which applies to any employer undertaking this type of conversion) are as follows:
- Member Notices: Laurier distributed notices about the proposed conversion to active and inactive members, as well as union groups. The conversion notices were detailed, and set out individual member entitlements and the key terms of both the Laurier Plan and the UPP.
- Member Consent: Upon receipt of the conversion notices, active and inactive members had 90 days to consent or object to the conversion, respectively. Union groups consented to the proposed conversion on behalf of their represented active members. Under the PBA, at least 2/3 of active members must consent to the proposed conversion and no more than 1/3 of inactive members may object to the proposed conversion for it to proceed. The consent threshold was easily reached in the Laurier conversion.
- Regulatory Consent: Once the requisite member consent threshold was met, and certain other documentation was complete (discussed below), Laurier filed an application with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (“FSRA”) seeking consent to the Laurier conversion. There was ongoing engagement with FSRA with respect to the conversion application, and it took a number of months to receive consent to the proposed conversion.
- Transfer of Assets and Liabilities: Finally, the assets and liabilities were transferred from the Laurier Plan to the UPP once the Chief Executive Officer of FSRA provided consent to the conversion.
Of course, the conversion also involved legal documents that kept Laurier and UPP stakeholders busy alongside the regulatory conversion process. For example, a Transfer Agreement set out the terms on which the asset and liability transfer for pre-conversion service was completed from the Laurier Plan to the UPP, and a Participation Agreement set out the terms on which Laurier participates in the UPP on a go-forward basis.
The Laurier conversion (like other UPP conversions) is also somewhat unique in comparison to other single-employer pension plan to JSPP conversions in that the UPP is continuing to administer pre-conversion benefits accrued under the Laurier Plan based on the design of the Laurier Plan. This added complexity to the Laurier conversion and meant that a significant amount of time was spent on the transition of administration of the pre-conversion Laurier benefits to the UPP.
Reflecting on her experience, Pam notes that “[t]he conversion required not only a deep understanding of the legal framework but also a strategic approach to decision-making. The BMKP team – Terra and Maggie (a Laurier alumna) - worked collaboratively with our internal team and our actuarial advisors throughout, helping us navigate the regulatory requirements and other matters in a structured and coordinated way. Their ability to integrate legal insight with practical strategy was invaluable in keeping the process moving forward smoothly.”
Laurier’s successful conversion of the Laurier Plan to the UPP demonstrates the advantages of JSPPs for both employers and employees. Laurier is no longer responsible for the administration or investment of the Laurier Plan, while its employees retain a secure defined benefit pension. Both Laurier and its members are also represented in the governance of the UPP – on the employer-side, through the UPP’s Employer Sponsor Committee which Pam has joined, and on the employee-side, through the UPP’s Employee Sponsor Committee.
If you have any questions regarding conversions to JSPPs, including those in the university sector, please do not hesitate to call any of us - we’re here to help.
[1] This Sidebar focusses on the conversion framework set out in Section 80.4 of the PBA. It does not specifically address the expansion of the conversion framework to defined contribution pension plans made by way of amendments to the PBA through Bill 68, Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2025 (No. 2). Bill 68 received Royal Assent but the amendments to the PBA are not in force as of the date of publication. For further information on the expansion of the conversion framework to defined contribution pension plans, please see our article on the Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review 2025: Modernizing Ontario’s Pension Sector | BMKP Law | Pension, Benefits & Executive Compensation.
This Sidebar client update provides general information and should not be relied upon as legal advice. This publication is copyrighted by BMKP Law LLP and may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of BMKP Law LLP. ©
