Meghan Popp

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Meghan is a partner in the firm’s Pension and Employee Benefits Group. She works with boards of trustees and other administrators and sponsors of pension and benefit plans in the private and public sectors across a wide range of industries in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Meghan advises on issues that arise in the day-to-day administration of plans, as well as larger projects such as plan mergers and reorganizations. She provides advice on compliance with pension standards legislation, family property law, tax law, human rights law and privacy law. She also works with administrators on governance issues, the interpretation and amendment of plan texts, trust agreements and policies, and negotiating plan related contracts. Meghan regularly liaises with the BC Financial Services Authority and other regulatory agencies through her practice.

She is recognized by Chambers Canada: Pensions & Benefits and Best Lawyers in Canada: Employee Benefits Law as “Ones to Watch” for her “outstanding professional excellence”.

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Experience

Providing strategic and legal advice to a union sponsored board in respect of the certification of a successor union as the bargaining agent of a portion of the plan’s participating members, including restructuring the board to allow for fair representation of stakeholders.
Advising the boards of trustees of two public sector multi-employer benefit plans on issues related to the structure of their boards and succession planning.
Reviewing and negotiating a series of annuity contracts to transfer approximately $120 million of pension liabilities to an insurer on behalf of the sponsor of a defined benefit pension plan being wound up.
Assisting multiple clients in conducting assessments of the administration of their pension plans and responding to audits of their plans by the BC pension regulator. This work included amending the plans’ policies to address the regulator’s outsourcing and information security guidelines, consulting with the plans’ service providers, and guiding the administrators in assessing the performance of their service providers and the plans’ overall administration.
Advising a board of trustees of an employee life and health trust on the risk of successful unlawful discrimination claims under the BC Human Rights Code in respect of a proposed benefit arrangements, including recommended approaches for dealing with any such risk.
Advising on the combination of two employee life and health trusts, including obtaining agreement from the sponsoring employer association and union as to the governance and contribution structures of the ongoing plan, preparing amendments to the two plan’s trust agreements and the collective agreement.
Leading a project to overhaul an employee benefit plan’s record retention practices, including conducting a records audit, advising on legal record retention obligations, and preparing records management policies and procedures, as well as a recommended retention periods.
Advising a multi-employer education and training trust on its administration and operational processes. This included providing advice on good governance practices and fiduciary duties applicable to trustees of a trust of this nature and developing a robust set of policies that covered governance, risk management, trustee education, service provider assessments, meeting procedures and committee mandates.
Advising a pension plan administrator in respect of the privacy, electronic communications and pension law requirements related to a project to transfer plan member communications to a digital platform.
Drafting, and assisting clients to implement, internal policies and governance documents related to plan administration, including funding policies, governance policies, document retention policies, surplus use policies, information security policies, conflict of interest policies and privacy policies.
Providing strategic and legal advice to a non-collectively bargained multi-employer plan on the funding and design issues affecting the plan’s sustainability.
Assisting the trustees of a collectively bargained multi-employer pension plan in an appeal of the pension regulator’s decision to refuse the registration of an amendment to their plan.
Reviewing and providing advice to boards of trustees in respect of their fiduciary liability insurance policies.
Providing legal opinions on a variety of topics, including fiduciary obligations, age discrimination, surplus, post-retirement group benefits, pension division and privacy issues.
Acting for a single employer plan in the transfer of assets and liabilities to a large public sector plan to effectively eliminate $50 million in solvency deficiencies from the transferring plan.

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Professional Activities

The Association of Canadian Pension Management, Member of the Prairie Regional Council
Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia Branch, Chair of the Pension & Benefits Section
Canadian Bar Association, Member-at-Large of the National Pension & Benefits Section
Canadian Pension & Benefits Institute, Member
International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, Member
Law Society of British Columbia, Member