Bill 20 (Legislature 13, Session 4)

L13 S4 6150

Alberta — Bills

No. 20 4th Session, 13th Legislature, Alberta 6 Elizabeth II, 1958 BILL 20 A Bill to amend The Trustee Act HON. MR. MANNING Printed by L. S. WALL, Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty Edmonton, Alberta, 1958

Explan.atory Notes General. This Act amends The Trustee Act and completes the legislation on employers' retirement trusts, plans or funds for employees, which was begun in 1955 by

chapter 25 of that year and which appears in the revised Trustee Act as

section 56 thereof. Pension funds or plans that do not come under the provisions of The Alberta Insurance Act but that are established for the purpose of providing pensions, sickness or death benefits to em ployees were subject to three defects prior to 1955, viz: (1) such trusts or funds are intended to continue for indefinite periods and may, therefore, contravene the rules against remoteness of vesting. (This possibility was raised by an unreported English case known as "Re The Telegraph Con struction and Maintenance Co." in 1925.

In 1954 the Con ference of Commissioners on Uniformity of Legislation in Canada recommended legislation to cure this possible defect and that recommendation resulted in present

section 56 of The Trustee Act); (2) the designation under such a trust or plan by the employee of a beneficiary to receive payment under the plan in the event the employee dies before reaching pension age is testamentary in nature, and therefore should be executed in the proper testamentary manner and could unintentionally be revoked by a subsequent will of the employee (Re Mac Innis

(1935) S.C.R. 2,00); this is not desirable by the nature of these plans; (3) the beneficiary named by the employee under such a plan is not a party to the agreement and has no right to enforce payment of the benefit under existing law; this also is not desirable in the present age. At the 1957 Conference of Commissioners on Uniformity of LegislatIon, points (2) and (3) above were dealt with and a recommended model bill approved to remove the defects men tioned. Clause 2, subclauscs (1) to (8) of this Bill will enact the 1957 recommendation of the Conference.

Subclause (9) of clause 2 is, however, added to ensure that the provisions respecting pension plans will bind the Crown in the event of a bona vacantia being claimed by the Crown in respect of an asset under such a plan.

BILL No. 20 of 1958

An Act to amend The rrrustee Act (Assented to , 1958) HER MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Alberta, enacts as follows: 1. The Trustee Act, being

chapter 346 of The Revised Statutes of Alberta, 1955, is hereby amended. 2. The following new

section is added immediately after

section 56: "57.

(1) In this section, " (a) "designation" means a written instrument to which subsection (2) refers; " (b) "employer" includes the trustee under a plan; " (c) "participant" means a person who is participating in a plan established by an employer and who "(

i) is or has been employed by the employer, or "(ii) is an agent or former agent of the employer; H (d) "plan" means a pension, retirement, welfare or profit-sharing fund, scheme or arrangement, for the benefit of employees, former employees, agents, and former agents of an employer, or any of them. "

(2) Where, in accordance with the terms of a plan, a participant, by a written instrument signed by him or on his behalf by another person in his presence and by his direction, has designated a person to receive a benefit payable under the plan in the event of the death of the partici pan t, " (

a) the employer is discharged on paying to the per son designated the amount of the benefit, and "(

b) subject to subsection (3), the person designated may, on the death of the participant, enforce pay ment of the benefit to himself for his own use. "

(3) Where a person designated under subsection (2) seeks to enforce payment of the benefit, the employer may set up any defence that he could have set up against the participant or his personal representative. "( 4) A participant n1ay alter or revoke a designation made under a plan, but, subject to subsection (7), any such alteration or revocation may be made only in the manner set forth in the plan.

2 u

(5) Where a designation is contained in a will, the designation shall, notwithstanding

section 21 of The Wills Act, have effect from the time of its execution. "

(6) A designation contained in an instrument purport ing to be a will is not invalid by reason only of the fact that the instrument is invalid as a testamentary instru ment, and it may be revoked or altered by any subsequent designation. "

(7) Where a designation is contained in a will, and subsequently the will is revoked by operation of law or otherwise, the designation is thereby revoked. "

(8) This

section does not apply to a designation of a beneficiary to which The Alberta Insurance Act applies. "

(9) The Crown is bound by this

section and

section 56.'7. 3. This Act comes into force on the day upon which it is assented to.

FOURTH SESSION THIRTEENTH LEGISLATURE 6 ELIZABETH II 1958 BILL

An Act to amend The l'rustee Act Recei ved and read the First time ......................................... . Second time ....................................... . Third time ......................................... . HON. MR. MANNING Title: 1958 (13th, 4th) Bill 20,

An Act to amend The Trustee Act

Document details

Collection	Alberta — Bills
Citation	L13 S4 6150
Type	bill
Volume / chapter	L13 S4 6150
Language	en
Format	json
Source	PROVINCIAL
Identifier	4d838500565b31dac9d650b05a7a389aed884685

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