The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has dismissed a lawsuit from former banker Robert Webb against TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. and TD Waterhouse Financial Planning, who alleged he received poor advice from the firms, his former employers, when he elected to take the commuted value of his pension and invest it rather than staying in the parent bank’s pension plan after he was terminated in 2005.
The retirement plan fell apart when the markets did not perform as expected, the court notes: “The investment retirement plan for these funds he was expecting to achieve unfortunately was not realized, and, in fact, the plaintiff unfortunately found himself in a position where a substantial portion of the funds were going to be exhausted long before anticipated.”
Webb sued the firms, claiming he was given bad advice to take the commuted value of his pension rather than staying in the plan. The firms argued that the case was brought after the two-year limitation period and that there’s no genuine issue for trial.
The court sided with the firms, ruling that Webb would have known about the possible grounds for a claim by 2009 or 2010 at the latest, but that he didn’t bring his claim until 2014.
“There was a lack of diligence on [Webb’s] part and he took no steps to investigate his concerns when he could have,” the court said in dismissing the case.
The court also noted that Webb veered off the investment plan in the aftermath of the financial crisis when he, “panicked and jumped in and out of investments.”
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