The focus of this book is on the law and regulation of pension plans "arising from employment"—that is, plans sponsored by employers or trade unions that are registered with the Canada Revenue Agency for tax purposes and with a provincial or the federal pension regulator for pension standards purposes. These include pension plans covering employees in both the private sector and the broader public sector in all three levels of government.

Pension Law examines the jurisdiction, application, and scope of pension legislation; the duties and reach of pension regulators; the minimum substantive employee protections provided in the legislation; the duties and standards of care for pension plan administrators in the day-to-day administration of the plan; pension plan solvency; the rules and standards associated with contributions, plan valuation, and investment of the pension fund; the principles concerning how a pension plan can be amended; the legal implications of a reorganization or sale of the employer's business or other employer-initiated restructuring of the pension plan; how and when a pension plan can be terminated; the rights and responsibilities resulting from the termination of a pension plan; and the regulatory requirements and legal principles revolving around the policy-laden issue of withdrawing pension plan "surplus."

The book will be an invaluable resource for anyone who needs to understand this complex legal and regulatory environment including lawyers, human resources officers, plan administrators and trustees, actuaries, accountants, public servants, and union officials.

Ari Kaplan is principal of Kaplan Law, Canada’s first law firm specializing in pensions and benefits dispute resolution. He authored the first edition of Pension Law, which won the 2007 Walter Owen Book Prize for outstanding new contribution to Canadian legal literature. He is Canada’s first Qualified Mediator with expertise in pension and benefits law. He is a past assistant professor at Western University; past adjunct professor at the University of Toronto; past appointee of the Attorney General to the Board of Trustees of the Law Foundation of Ontario; and past chair of the Ontario Bar Association, Pension & Benefits Section. He is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, ADR Institute of Canada and a founding member of the Family Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario. He practices mindfulness meditation and teaches these skills to lawyers and others. BA (Hons), McGill (1994); LLB, Osgoode (1997), LLM, Osgoode (2001); QMed, ADRIC (2015).

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Eileen E. Gillese, B.A., B.C.L. (Oxon) is a justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. She was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Justice in January 1999. Prior to that appointment, Justice Gillese served as professor and dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario where she taught Administrative Law, Property, Trusts, Wills and Pension Law. She was appointed a member of the Pension Commission of Ontario in 1988, served as its vice chair from 1989 to 1993 and chair from 1994 to 1996. Justice Gillese was chair of the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Services Tribunal in 1998.

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• Winner, Walter Owen Book Prize