Canada: Myth #3: Unions And Employees Are Opposed To Target Benefits

In our posts over the past two weeks, we discussed some of the myths surrounding target benefit plans (TBPs), clarifying that:

while the introduction of TBPs as an option for single employers is a welcome innovation, target benefits have been prevalent in the multi-employer context for some time; and
permitting plan design options, such as TBPs, should be encouraged as a progressive alternative that could, in many circumstances, be preferable to exiting traditional defined benefit (DB) […]

By | November 20th, 2014 ||

UK: A Checklist For Employers Before Letting An Employee Go

Understand All Rights and Obligations
Employees have different rights and obligations depending on their contracts and matters such as their length of employment.

Check the employee’s contract (and related documents, including incentive plans and share schemes) for details about notice period, post-termination restrictions and payments due on termination.

Aside from what’s written into the contract, generally employees who have been employed for 2 years or longer have more legal rights than those who have been employed for […]

By | November 19th, 2014 ||

Australia: Super, death benefits and the trustee’s discretion – real or imagined? The impact of McIntosh v McIntosh

The discretion of the trustee of a superannuation fund to choose the recipient of a death benefit is a core principle of estate planning, particularly where the benefits are in a self-managed superannuation fund.

But the Queensland case of McIntosh v McIntosh [2014] QSC 99 has called this into question.

James McIntosh died with no will, spouse or children, and $450,000 in death benefits in retail superannuation funds.

His mother Elizabeth was appointed administrator of his estate […]

By | November 19th, 2014 ||