Responsibilities | Pension Plans
Information for Pension Plan Members

Trusts and Trustees
A trust is a legal relationship whereby a trustee is responsible for administering property on behalf of the beneficiaries of the trust.

Pension plans are often legally considered to be a trust. The plan administrator is the trustee and is legally responsible for administering assets on behalf of the plan members (the beneficiaries of the trust).

In cases where the plan administrator is a board of trustees, all individual trustees are personally responsible to administer the pension plan in the best interests of the members.

The legal obligations and responsibilities of pension trustees are extensive, and come from the common law, the PBSA, and other statutes. Under the PBSA a plan administrator, and all trustees on a board of trustees, must

• act honestly, in good faith and in the best interests of the members and former members and any other persons to whom a fiduciary duty is owed, and
  
  
• exercise the care, diligence and skill that a person of ordinary prudence would exercise when dealing with the property of another person.

A plan administrator, and all trustees on a board of trustees that is the administrator, must not knowingly permit their own interests to conflict with their duties and powers in respect of the pension plan.

Pension plan investments and financial decisions must be made in the best financial interests of plan members, former members and other plan beneficiaries.

Further duties and responsibilities of administrators and trustees are outlined specifically in section 8 of the PBSA , as well as throughout the remainder of the PBSA.

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