{"id":222010,"date":"2025-12-08T15:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/222010\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:18:13","slug":"lawsuit-alleges-scotiabank-misused-proprietary-information-to-build-rival-pension-plan-for-doctors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/222010\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit alleges Scotiabank misused proprietary information to build rival pension plan for doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Scotiabank launched the Medicus Pension Plan, a multiemployer plan for doctors, in 2023.Nathan Denette\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Pension plan provider Blue Pier is suing Bank of Nova Scotia BNS-T<\/a> and its subsidiaries for $700-million in damages, alleging the bank used confidential information to set up a rival plan after talks about a possible partnership broke off.<\/p>\n

Blue Pier Administration Corp. provides pension plans as a service to a range of employers, using a for-profit, multiemployer structure that it says is novel in Canada. <\/p>\n

Founder and chief executive officer James Pierlot, a former pension lawyer, launched Blue Pier in 2014 with plans to target doctors and other higher-earning professionals who don\u2019t always participate in traditional pension plans. <\/p>\n

In 2019, Blue Pier approached Scotiabank about a possible partnership to distribute its pension product to the bank\u2019s clients, according to court filings.<\/p>\n

Scotiabank had a valuable set of relationships with doctors stemming from its 2018 acquisition of MD Financial Management<\/a>, a wealth manager that caters to physicians, through which the Canadian Medical Association agreed to <\/b>promote the bank as a preferred financial services provider. <\/p>\n

More than half of Ontario doctors eyeing retirement in the next five years, survey shows<\/a><\/p>\n

Physicians are seen as an untapped opportunity for Canada\u2019s pension providers as many doctors across the country have no formal plan to help them or their staff save for retirement. Competition to serve them heated up as Blue Pier and Scotiabank each looked to fill that gap, and the $123-billion Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) opened its doors to self-employed doctors in Ontario<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

After initial talks, Blue Pier and Scotiabank signed a non-disclosure agreement in February, 2020. Blue Pier uploaded documents outlining its proposal to a secure data room, which Scotiabank downloaded, according to court filings.<\/p>\n

Blue Pier alleges that Scotiabank then broke off discussions, and launched its own, competing multiemployer plan \u2013 the Medicus Pension Plan \u2013 in 2023. <\/p>\n

Blue Pier alleges in its claim that the Medicus plan contains \u201call the essential features\u201d of the proposal developed by Blue Pier and set out in its confidential documents shared with Scotiabank. Crucially, Blue Pier claims the documents contained a blueprint for clearing the regulatory and tax hurdles that had stood in the way of launching such a plan in Canada, including correspondence with the Canada Revenue Agency that allegedly could have helped pave the way for the Medicus plan. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendants took the Blue Pier confidential information and used it as the basis for the Medicus Pension Plan, for their own benefit, and in breach of the NDA,\u201d Blue Pier alleges in court filings.<\/p>\n

Scotiabank said in its own court filing that Blue Pier\u2019s claim \u201cis wholly without merit,\u201d and that the bank met its obligations under the NDA \u201cat all times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe premise of the claim is wrong,\u201d Scotiabank alleges in its defence filed with the court.<\/p>\n

Scotiabank alleges that its Medicus plan is not the same as Blue Pier\u2019s because it does not have the same for-profit structure. Blue Pier counters that the roles each company performs in running their respective plans are not \u201cmaterially different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bank also said the files it accessed through the data room contained \u201cminimal documentation,\u201d that much of it was \u201cmisleading, incorrect\u201d or different than what Blue Pier had described, and \u201cwas not relevant to the establishment of the Medicus Pension Plan.\u201d <\/p>\n

A lawyer for Blue Pier, Peter Smiley of BYLD Barristers, declined to comment. A Scotiabank spokesperson said the bank cannot comment while the matter is before the court.<\/p>\n

Scotiabank names new chief risk officer amid management shuffle<\/a><\/p>\n

Blue Pier\u2019s legal claim, filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, seeks $700-million in damages, or alternatively for Scotiabank to forfeit its actual and anticipated profits from the Medicus Pension Plan for up to 15 years. <\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Scotiabank made a motion to strike Blue Pier\u2019s claim, but Justice Markus Koehnen allowed the claim to proceed. <\/p>\n

Blue Pier announced<\/a> its pension plan for doctors in November, 2020, but struggled to attract customers and has had \u201climited enrolment\u201d because the company \u201clacked the capital to effectively market its product,\u201d the company\u2019s court filings say. <\/p>\n

At that time, Scotiabank \u201ccontinued to be of the view that there was no potential for a meaningful partnership with Blue Pier,\u201d Scotiabank said in its filing. Instead, the bank \u201ccontinued the development of a pension plan offering for physicians, ultimately named the Medicus Pension Plan, working closely with various pension industry stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two sides also dispute whether Scotiabank ever gave formal notice that it did not want to move forward after entering the NDA. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter obtaining access to the data room and the confidential information, the defendants stopped communicating with the plaintiff,\u201d Blue Pier alleges in its claim. <\/p>\n

Scotiabank says in a court document that the bank told Mr. Pierlot in a phone call that it was calling off the discussions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Scotiabank launched the Medicus Pension Plan, a multiemployer plan for doctors, in 2023.Nathan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[4320,4309,4321,9,4302,4322,79,995,4301,4314,4315,4311,4303,4300,179,2597,18,440,4313,4307,4333,4304,4305,3428,19,17,4310,3521,3136,4323,4306,4328,4329,4331,4326,4330,4324,4327,234,235,430,4317,4318,790,4316,4325,4308,82,4319,4312,4222,66,4332],"class_list":{"0":"post-222010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-eire","25":"tag-environment","26":"tag-federal-government","27":"tag-foreign-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","30":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","31":"tag-government","32":"tag-ie","33":"tag-ireland","34":"tag-life-news","35":"tag-lifestyle","36":"tag-local-news","37":"tag-manitoba","38":"tag-national-news","39":"tag-new-brunswick","40":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","41":"tag-northwest-territories","42":"tag-nova-scotia","43":"tag-nunavut","44":"tag-ontario","45":"tag-pei","46":"tag-personal-finance","47":"tag-personalfinance","48":"tag-photos","49":"tag-political-news","50":"tag-political-opinion","51":"tag-politics","52":"tag-politics-news","53":"tag-quebec","54":"tag-sports-news","55":"tag-technology","56":"tag-travel","57":"tag-trudeau","58":"tag-us-news","59":"tag-world-news","60":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}