OSFI releases new guides for DC, DB disclosure requirements

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions has published updated guides for the disclosure requirements of defined contribution and defined benefit plans.

The new guides replace previous versions issued in March 1998, and incorporate changes set out in the Pension Benefits Standard Act and the Pension Benefits Standards Regulations.

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Each guide includes a checklist of disclosure requirements for both pension plan members and former members.

For defined contribution plans, statements must include additional and accumulated voluntary contributions, the required and accumulated contributions of both the employer and the plan member, the amount of any funds transferred to the plan and the benefit payable should the member die. If assets of the plan aren’t held in respect of member choice accounts, statements must also include a list of the plan’s 10 largest asset holdings based on market value and the plan’s target asset allocation.

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For defined benefit plans, statements must also include the benefit payable when the member reaches pensionable age, interest rates credited to the member’s contributions, the extent to which the member’s death benefit would be reduced under a group life insurance plan and the plan’s solvency ratio. If that ratio is less than one, the statement must also include measures the plan sponsor will implement to improve it, as well as the extent to which the member’s benefit would be reduced if the plan were wound up with the current ratio.

If a plan has both defined benefit and defined contribution elements, administrators should follow the relevant requirements in each guide.

The guides don’t include disclosure requirements for pooled registered pension plans.

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