Targeted reviews for pension plans
Employers with pension plans registered in Ontario may be selected to participate in a targeted review by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA).
Targeted reviews improve the way pension plans are managed and protect plan members and their beneficiaries. FSRA conducts targeted reviews to examine a specific pension legislative requirement, process or practice.
The review is intended to:
- Ensure pension plans are complying with the Pension Benefits Act (PBA) and FSRA policies
- Identify common issues and trends
- Determine if further guidance or education may be needed
Targeted review process
Overview
Targeted reviews follow a standard process. When conducting a review FSRA will:
- Identify a legislative requirement, process or practice for a targeted review and post a notification.
- Select and notify the pension plans to participate in the review. If selected, plan administrators must provide the information requested by the deadline specified in the notification.
- Review and analyze the collected data to assess compliance levels and determine whether changes are needed, or if further guidance or education is needed. FSRA will work collaboratively with stakeholders to make improvements, develop education programs or promote best practices for pension plans.
- Post the aggregated findings and share them with stakeholders (plan-specific information is kept confidential).
Process for selecting plans to review
FSRA develops the criteria to select a specific number of plans for the review. The criteria will depend on the focus of the review and may differ from one targeted review to the next.
Plans are screened based on the established criteria and selected using a stratified random sampling method. This ensures a sample of plans that best represents the types of plans being reviewed.
In most cases, if a plan has been included in a targeted review, it may be excluded in the next targeted review.
If your pension plan has been selected for a targeted review
If you receive a notification requesting your participation in a targeted review, you are required under the PBA to provide FSRA with the requested documents.
The notification will include details like the required documents and the deadline for a response.
- Send the documents to FSRA in the manner instructed in the notification.
- Personal information about plan members, including names, social insurance numbers and bank information, should be removed or redacted, and the document itself should be password protected. You can send the password in a separate email to FSRA.
If you don’t have the information being requested, contact the FSRA employee indicated in the notification.