Biography

Meghan is a partner in the firm’s Pension and Employee Benefits Group. She acts for boards of trustees and other sponsors of pension and benefit plans in the private and public sectors in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Meghan works with both single employer plans and trusteed multi-employer plans across a wide range of industries, providing advice in respect of the legal and regulatory issues that impact these plans. She advises on issues that arise in the day to day administration of plans, as well as assisting with larger projects such as plan mergers and reorganizations. She prepares and amends plan texts, trust agreements, policies and governance materials. She also negotiates a variety a plan-related contracts, including fiduciary liability insurance policies, custodian agreements, confidentiality agreements, investment management agreements and letters of credit. She regularly works with the Financial Institutions Commission of B.C. and other regulatory agencies through her practice.

Professional Activities

  • Canadian Pension & Benefits Institute, Member
  • International Association of Employee Benefit Plans, Member
  • Canadian Bar Association, Member
  • Canadian Bar Association, Pension & Benefits, Member
  • Law Society of British Columbia, Member

Experience

Experience

Meghan’s experience in pension and employee benefit law includes:

  • Advising clients on changes in the British Columbia and Alberta pension plan and family property legislation to ensure compliance with new regulations.
  • Creating and amending plan texts and trust agreements to address specific issues that have arisen and to comply with the applicable law, including the amendment and restatement of the plan and trust documents of broader public sector pension plan and several large multi-employer plans.
  • Advising clients on provincial and federal privacy and personal information legislation.
  • Drafting, and assisting clients to implement, internal policies and governance documents related to the administration of the plan, including funding policies; governance policies; document retention policies, conflict of interest policies and privacy policies.
  • Establishing new employee life and health trusts (ELHTs) and transitioning existing health and welfare trusts to ELHTs, including draft trust agreements and ensuring compliance with federal tax legislation.
  • Reviewing and providing advice in respect of fiduciary liability insurance policies for boards of trustees.
  • Drafting legal opinions on a variety of topics including: fiduciary obligations, age discrimination, post-retirement group benefits, pension division and privacy issues
  • Negotiating and providing advice in respect of third party service contracts for administrators of employee benefit plans.
  • Liaising with provincial and federal pension regulators and the Canada Revenue Agency in respect of the administration of employee benefit plans, amendments, requests for consent and other issues.
  • Presenting a workshop on pension governance for trustees of a multi-employer pension plan.
  • Assisting in the transfer of assets and liabilities to a large public sector plan from a single employer plan to effectively eliminate of $50 million in solvency deficiencies from the transferring plan.

News & Publications

Blog Posts

Speaking Engagements

Speaking Engagements

"Human Rights Issues in Pension and Benefit Plans" by Meghan Popp, at the Pacific Business & Law Institute's 'Essential Tasks of Pension and Benefit Plan Trustees' Conference (2024).

  • Recent Benefits & Pension Developments of Saskatchewan, CPBI's Saskatchewan Regional Conference, April 19, 2023, Presenter
  • COVID-19 Measures Taken by Pension Regulators Across Canada, CBA Pensions & Benefits Law Section Meeting (Alberta), March 1, 2021, Presenter
  • Issues Facing Older Workers in Pension & Benefits Plans, CBA Pensions & Benefits Law Section Meeting, June 17, 2019, Presenter
Meghan Popp, Lawson Lundell Photo
Vancouver
t 604.631.9294
f 604.669.1620

Assistant Contact

Bar Admissions

  • Saskatchewan (2022)
  • British Columbia (2010)

Education

University of Victoria (B.A., 2003)

University of British Columbia (J.D., 2009)

Practices & Industries

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