The Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities on Friday announced the release of draft pension plan governance guidelines and a self-assessment questionnaire for use by registered pension plans.

The guidelines are designed to help pension plan administrators institute good governance practices for their pension plans.

CAPSA will “road test” the draft guidelines and self-assessment questionnaire this fall to measure their effectiveness in pension plans of various types and sizes and to determine whether additional instructions are necessary.

“The guidelines and the self-assessment questionnaire are the result of extensive, intensive work by our Pension Plan Governance Committee, members of CAPSA and an industry task force,” said Nancy MacNeill Smith, chair of CAPSA, in a news release.

“We are very interested in receiving the views of the pension plan administrators who will be involved in the road testing. We will monitor how the guidelines work in practice and fine tune them before finalizing the guidelines and self-assessment questionnaire,” said Nurez Jiwani, Chair of the CAPSA Pension Plan Governance Committee.

Copies of the draft guidelines can be viewed at www.capsa-acor.org.