Please join us on Thursday 5th October at LCP's offices in London for an MNT training workshop - it will be limited to 12 people roundtable style, exact timings to follow shortly. Click here to register interest 

More info on the Cyber Security session...

In the cyber security session, Elisabeth Storey from RSM will explore what is meant by cyber security and why this should be on the minds of every Pension Scheme Trustee. Liz will look at the different types of cyber-crime and help to decipher some of the terminology that is used, and demonstrate how these crimes may affect pension schemes, sharing examples from RSM’s experience of auditing and providing risk assurance services to pension schemes. The session will offer Trustees a forum to discuss their own experiences and thoughts about how cyber-crime might affect them, their scheme and their members. It will also provide Trustees with examples of questions that they should be asking of themselves and their advisors. This means trustees will be able to take practical guidance away from the session and demonstrate good governance in relation to this high profile issue.

More info on The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) session...

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new law that will replace the Data Protection Act 1998 and will apply in the UK from 25 May 2018. The government has confirmed that the UK’s decision to leave the EU will not affect the commencement of the GDPR.

Whether you are a data controller or data processor you have duties and responsibilities that you need to be aware of and you will probably have questions such as:

·         How does GDPR affect me as a Trustee?

·         How or will my scheme members be affected?

·         How do we ensure that our suppliers/ advisers are compliant?

·         What processes do we need to update?

·         Will we need to review our approach to member communication?

And many more such issues.

LCP will share their experience as to how they are dealing with the challenges of this new regulation with the aim of giving you insight to some of the actions you may need to consider.

More info on the Asset Security session... with Jane Kola of Arc Pensions Law 

Asset Security is about Trustees understanding the legal risks of their investments so that they can make informed decisions about those legal risks as a part of their investment decisions.  They already take informed decisions about the suitability of their investments, the likely returns and the costs.

Whilst Trustees should and do take a keen interest on the financial and commercial aspects of their investments, think carefully about the investment objectives, risks, costs and who their investment providers are, many Trustees do not consider as carefully the legal structure of their investment portfolios, their investor rights and obligations and what would happen if an investment did not perform as expected or their provider went bust.

It is right that the Trustees should spend most of their time and resources on the commercial and financial investments as those are the very elements which are most likely to impact the Scheme and members directly.  Legal risk is less likely to bite, but if it does the legal structure can impact significantly on how much the Trustee can recover for the benefit of members.  It also means that when Trustees invest they can make informed decisions on the legal risks they are taking, can consider if there are sensible and pragmatic ways of managing and limiting those risks without harming the main financial and commercial objectives and focus their monitoring activity on legal risk to reflect known and quantified risks rather than taking a more generalised and non-specific approach.  These issues arise for both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes, but where the members is taking the risks of legal failure it is only right that the Trustees have considered those risks and are able to explain them to members in appropriate terms.

This does not mean that Trustees should undertake detailed and expensive legal investigations into every aspect of their investments, but it does mean that they should  ask themselves some fairly basic questions about the legal aspects of their investments and take a reasonable and proportionate approach to understanding those points depending on the level of investment being undertaken.

The sorts of things Trustees should think about include:

-          Where are my Scheme’s assets;

-          What does the Scheme own exactly?

-          What regulatory regime is the investment subject to?

-          Which providers operate the investment and are there risks of conflicts of interest coming into play?

-          Are there onerous contractual terms which the Trustee must sign up to?  What would happen if those terms were applied?

-          Do the Trustees have to make  legal promises to the provider to invest? What is the worst that can happen if those promises turn out to be wrong?

-          How do the Trustees get out of an investment which is not doing well?

-          If the investment or provider went bust or someone committed fraud in respect of it, would the Trustees get their money back?

IRM will also be covered by PwC