Essential Tasks of Pension and Benefit Plan Trustees

February 19, 2025 at 9:00AM PST

Downtown Vancouver and Live Webinar

Essential Tasks of Pension and Benefit Plan Trustees

February 19, 2025

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. 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

  • Broad trends in pension and benefit plans

  • What plan administrators should know about benefit plan litigation

  • An update from the BC Financial Services Authority

  • A case study on the wind-up of United Way BC Pension Plan

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 - Macro Trends in Pension and Benefit Plans

Jeremy Bell
George & Bell Consulting Inc.

  • Investment protocols and strategies

  • Other considerations

12:20 - Questions and Discussion

12:30 - Lunch Break

1:30 - Current Issues in Benefit Plan Litigation

Gordon Brandt
Lawson Lundell LLP

  • Current issues

  • Recent decisions of note

  • Takeaways for plan administrators

2:15 - Questions and Discussion

2:25 - Afternoon Break

2:40 - BCFSA Update

Gillian Dabbs
BC Financial Services Authority

  • Developments at BCFSA

  • Most common compliance concerns for plan sponsors, and how to avoid them

3:25 - Questions and Discussion

3:35 - Case Study: The United Way British Columbia Pension Plan Wind-up

Tamara Isaak
Coast Funds

Amy Pun
TELUS Health

  • Stories and lessons learned

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

  • FCIA, CFA, Partner, George & Bell Consulting Inc., Vancouver, BC

    Jeremy Bell has worked in the pension, benefits and investment fields for 20 years. He advises clients on actuarial and investment matters related to pension and benefit plans. He also advises lawyers and provides expert witness testimony. Prior to his current role, Jeremy was the Chief Actuary and Chief Investment Officer with the Healthcare Benefit Trust. Jeremy is active with the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and participates as a volunteer on a variety of committees and task forces. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.

  • Partner, Lawson Lundell LLP, Vancouver, BC

    Gordon practises general civil and commercial litigation. Gordon’s primary practice areas include shareholder disputes, pension and benefits litigation, class actions, real estate disputes and administrative law matters. Gordon has appeared at all levels of Court in British Columbia, in Federal Court and in the Tax Court of Canada, and has represented clients before various administrative tribunals and bodies. While completing his law degree, Gordon interned with the Office of the Prosecutor at a Hague-based international criminal tribunal. After law school, Gordon was a law clerk to judges of the British Columbia Supreme Court in Victoria.

  • 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.

  • Director, Pensions, BC Financial Services Authority, Vancouver, BC

    Gillian joined BCFSA in October 2024 and leads a team of analysts responsible for the supervision of over 600 registered pension plans in the province.

    Over the past 10 years, Gillian has held progressively responsible roles in policy, governance, and pension administration. Most recently, she was the Director of Policy and Plan Innovation at BC Pension Corporation, the province’s largest pension services administrator, where she led a team of analysts providing pension policy advice and support to external and internal clients, and a corporate strategic program that delivers compliance and board-initiated projects for the corporation.

    Gillian holds a bachelor of commerce from the University of Alberta, and a bachelor of laws from the University of Edinburgh.

  • Chief Financial Officer, Coast Funds, Vancouver, BC

    Tamara is the CFO of Coast Funds, an organization working in close partnership with First Nations on ecological and cultural stewardship in the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii. As the former Chief Financial Officer at United Way British Columbia, Tamara led the financial strategy and operations, including addressing the financial sustainability of a multi-employer defined benefit plan, for one of the largest non-profit organizations in British Columbia. She has over 10 years of experience in financial leadership in the social impact sector.

  • Associate Partner, Retirement and Benefits Solutions, TELUS Health, Vancouver, BC


Registration Form

Program:

Essential Tasks of Pension and Benefit Plan Trustees 2025

Date:

February 19, 2025

Location:

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

Registration:

The registration fee is $890.00 plus GST of $44.50 totalling $934.50 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 20, 2025 and receive a $100 discount on the registration fee ($790.00 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. (PST). 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 12, 2025). 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.