…may well be the response from many trustees following a recent report ¹ published by The Pension Regulator, which stressed that the governance of many smaller occupational schemes isn’t good when compared to larger schemes. Trustee training for schemes with less than 1,000 members is particularly poor. And a separate survey, carried out by accountant Baker Tilley in association with Professional Pensions magazine found that only 14% of schemes are fully compliant with the Trustee Knowledge and Understanding (TKU) requirements ².

The Pensions Acts 1995 and 2004 place taxing responsibilities and requirements on trustees. They are expected to be familiar with their own scheme documentation and have the appropriate knowledge and understanding of the law relating to trusts and pension schemes generally, and the principles of funding and investment.

The Pensions Regulator in their medium term strategy paper of April 2006 ³ made raising standards of governance and trusteeship one of their priorities over the next three years. Taken together with the ever increasing demands put on trustees, even with the advent of the Regulator’s trustee toolkit, the role looks a less than envious position to hold going forward.

As a professional adviser, you may well have corporate clients - existing or prospective - who have old occupational schemes lurking in the background. Might these clients value a way to restructure their old schemes, reduce risk and cost to their business while not disadvantaging their members?

We thought so – just contact your Scottish Life consultant for details on our range of expert corporate pension restructuring services. In the meantime, though, why not take a look at The Pension Regulator’s report, strategy and requirements for yourself? You’ll find links to all of these on the right of this page.