Regarding the treatment of a lump sum received by the estate of a member of a defined benefit registered pension plan following the settlement of a class action suit against the employer, CRA stated:
[T]he lump sum amount received by the trust in this case cannot be a "qualifying amount" … [as it was] received by the estate … not in respect of a series of periodic payments that should have been made in previous years but rather in respect of the surplus accumulated in the registered pension plan. …
Note [also] that the term "specified portion" is defined as the portion of the qualifying amount that relates to the year, to the extent that the individual’s eligibility to receive the portion existed in the year. In this case, the taxpayer was not entitled - in years prior to the year of receipt of the pension plan surplus - to receive any amount in respect of the surplus.