Sectors

Acting  as the professional independent trustee alongside a board of lay trustees. We have been involved in all the day to day issues including the  negotiating a new funding plan and schedule of contributions with  the sponsor and considering change management issues collegiately with the sponsor to ensure the future viability of the scheme.

Acting as the independent trustee to a trustee board. We have supported the board on day to day issues and the processes around agreeing the latest valuation and the new employer contribution schedule. We have dealt with a conflict of interest issue for one of the trustees and  issues relating to whether or not certain benefits have correctly been paid together also with a high level consideration around company covenant aspects in light of a potential divestiture  of the sponsor to new owners.

Acted  as sole professional independent trustee to replace an existing trustee board to complete the buy out of pension scheme liabilities during the winding up of the scheme following the sponsors insolvency. There was a difficulty in that the former lay trustees had  inadvertently misdirected themselves regarding the application of scheme assets which had to be corrected sensitively and with minimal fuss and disruption, realigning member expectations to the true position.

We had to manage the expectations of a member representative group (which was legally supported). This was achieved,  winning the support of the member representative group whose voice carried considerable weight with the deferred members and pensioners in a Unionised  environment. Ultimately, members benefits were correctly secured and the assets were not depleted by the costs of an unnecessary court case.

In another case our Director Andrew Ashley Taylor assisted the Trustees of an industry wide multi-employer scheme in connection with an Regulated Apportionment Arrangement in respect of one of the regional car dealership sponsors.

National industry wide pension scheme (non-associated employers).  Providing support in connection with ascertaining the obligations of an employer to the industry wide pension scheme and the inter-company obligations between the parties.

As part of the board of directors of the corporate trustee to an international textile manufacturer Andrew was involved in a full governance  and investment review of their historic closed defined benefit scheme to ensure compliance with relate policies, time tables and procedures. There were material on-going employer developments both within the group and nationally, which made funding discussions a key element of the trusteeship role.

As a director of a corporate trustee appointed on a project basis we provided support to lead / project manage the transfer of a single employer specific pension scheme to a larger trust arrangement. Part of engagement was driven by the need to manage inherent conflicts of interest on the existing board.

Supporting a foreign parent company in the renewable energy sector in connection with the management of its distressed UK pension liabilities and their apportionment between sister companies and support by the Pensions Protection Fund. This involved entering into a Regulated Apportionment Agreement in relation to part of its UK interests, to delink the subsidiary from its pension obligations within a multi-employer scheme which were completely frustrating the company (insolvency was evidently inevitable) and their safe passage to the PPF.

Our director Andrew Ashley Taylor helped the trustees of this established  multi employer scheme navigate through the split of their £500m pension fund upon the sponsoring employer restructuring into two separately traded PLCs in the UK, the prime purpose of which was to enhance shareholder value and create a more profitable division of the business to the market to improve future profit margins.

Andrew helped design the journey plan for the process for both the trustees (his primary role) and the sponsors. The plan was the road map for the whole process. Andrew was instrumental in both the strategic considerations of the spin out and its implementation in a tight time frame. This required a serious amount of team work, working to key targets and addressing some serious pension issues relating to the identification of statutory employers, s75 debts and their management (an apportionment arrangement was one consequence) and so forth.

This was a project management appointment acting as the sole independent professional trustee to a heavy machinery service and supply business sponsoring a pension scheme in deficit in connection with its proposal to transfer its pension scheme into a segregated multi trust arrangement.

The proposal was being implemented at the same time as  a business turnaround plan was being undertaken. Security issues were a consideration as well as understanding the status of the sponsor and whether the turnaround plan was viable. There were some unusual (almost peculiar) conflicts to manage with this one between the shareholders, main board directors (and potentially a shadow director), and the equity role of the owners of a service provider to the pension fund.