Blakes Pension & Employee Benefits Group provides unsurpassed depth and breadth in this highly specialized area of law. Our group consists of 25 lawyers in Toronto, Montréal, Calgary and Vancouver whose practices are devoted to pensions, benefits and compensation law. We are supported by lawyers in litigation, tax, human rights, insurance, labour and employment, securities, privacy, intellectual property and other areas who have developed subspecialties in employee benefits matters relating to their respective areas of expertise.
Recent Recognition and Professional Achievements
- The Best Lawyers in Canada 2010
Seven Blakes lawyers are listed as leading lawyers in employee benefits law.
- The 2009 Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada
A Blakes practitioner is recognized as a leading lawyer in pension law.
- Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business 2010
Four Blakes lawyers are recognized as leading pension and employee benefits lawyers in Canada.
- PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook 2009
Three Blakes lawyers are listed in the area of employee benefits and pensions law.
- The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2009
Blakes is "consistently recommended" in pension and employee benefits. Four Blakes lawyers are listed in this area, with one lawyer ranked as "most frequently recommended."
- Ontario Financial Services Commission and Financial Services Tribunal
A Blakes pension partner is the current chair of both the tribunal and the commission, while another Blakes pension partner is a member of the legal advisory committee. A Blakes partner also previously served as vice-chair of both the tribunal and the commission.
- Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions
A Blakes pension lawyer served as one of four advisers to this government commission, which recently made recommendations on the Pension Benefits Act (Ontario).
Structuring
New and proposed tax and minimum standards legislation as well as regulatory guidelines have increased the demand for our advice on compliance and regulatory issues. We are frequently retained to review, draft or negotiate language for pension plans, executive compensation arrangements, retiring allowances, retirement compensation and deferred income arrangements, employee share ownership plans, health and welfare trusts, funding agreements, investment management agreements, registered retirement savings plans, profit sharing plans, group insurance contracts, employee booklets, statements of investment policies and procedures, and employee benefit provisions of sales agreements. Equity compensation, pay-for-performance, flexible benefits, golden (or platinum) handshakes and handcuffs are other areas in which our expertise has been relied upon to develop solutions or structures that meet the practical needs of our clients. We are often asked by our clients to assist them in developing plan governance protocols designed to meet legislative requirements and regulatory guidelines, while taking into account existing corporate structures.
Expertise
We provide opinions on such issues as surplus entitlement under pension and group insurance arrangements, "contribution holidays," fiduciary responsibility, the authority of plan administrators, plan governance issues, the tax treatment to be accorded to various pension, health and welfare arrangements, benefit splitting on marriage breakdown, pension plan mergers and spin-offs, retiring allowance payments, automobile policies, employee perquisites, the designation of beneficiaries and the eligibility of investments for tax-sheltered or registered pension and other funds. We also help to structure compensation arrangements on a basis that meets business objectives and complies with relevant tax, securities, minimum standards, trust and other laws.
Our clients include the administrators and sponsors of many of the largest public and private Canadian pension and benefit plans and funds. We also provide advice to smaller employers, to administrators of jointly trusteed plans and to individuals. Employee groups and unions have also sought opinions from our practitioners. Investment managers, trust companies, banks and insurance companies have retained us to help develop or provide advice in respect of investment products and services for pension, health and welfare funds. Trustees, actuaries, other law firms, benefit consultants and administrators regularly seek our opinion on a broad range of benefits and compensation-related issues.
Employers or their attorneys in foreign jurisdictions rely on us to provide advice about duplicating foreign benefits programs in Canada, transporting the benefits or compensation entitlements of migrating executives and other issues relating to pensions, benefits and compensation.
The reputation we enjoy in the benefits industry in Canada and among human resource and financial managers and financial institutions has been built on a long tradition of valuable advice provided to a broad range of clients in a timely manner.
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