Legal Advice
We've tried to make it easier for you to find legal advice on pensions by focusing on four main areas:
- Issues for trustees
- Issues for employers
- Compliance audits and scheme governance
- Scheme winding-up service
Issues for trustees
If you are a trustee of an occupational pension scheme, no doubt you rely on a team of professional advisers. We can help you to improve the governance of the scheme you look after and to manage risks to you as a trustee.
We already act for a large number of trustees, providing advice on a wide range of issues including:
- scheme funding under the Pensions Act 2004 and innovative funding arrangements
- the trustees' role in corporate deals
- conflicts of interest
- documenting schemes, including consolidating old documents and converting to plain English
- governance issues and risk management
- exercising trustees' duties, powers and discretions
- discrimination of all kinds - age, sex, disability, gender, and religion and belief
- insolvency of the employer and assessment for the Pension Protection Fund
- merging and splitting schemes
- the tax rules under the Finance Act 2004
If you would like to know more about how we can help you, please get in touch.
Issues for employers
We can advise you on the impact of pension obligations on your business. We have a large employer client base and advise employers on a wide range of pensions issues including:
- strategies for amending, reconstructing and terminating schemes
- scheme funding
- mitigation of the PPF levy
- moral hazard clearance
- enhanced transfer value exercises
- scheme mergers
- conflicts of interest
- managing statutory debts and withdrawal arrangements
- redundancy and dismissal
If you would like to know more about how we can support you, please get in touch.
Compliance audits and scheme governance
We can act as professional trustee to your pension scheme. Compliance audits are carried out as standard when we act as professional trustee. Regular compliance audits can help to protect both the trustees and the employer.
Compliance supports good governance. The Pensions Regulator stresses the importance of governance as a way of protecting members' benefits. Governance is also a valuable risk management tool for the trustees and the employer. To help with the compliance and governance of your pension scheme we will:
- review scheme documents for compliance with legislative requirements
- advise on governance strategies
- advise on business plans, risk registers, conflicts of interest policy and other governance policies and procedures for pension schemes
- provide trustee training.
If you would like more information on how we can support your pension scheme, please do get in touch.
Scheme winding-up service
We provide a comprehensive winding up service for pension schemes. This may be as professional trustee appointed by an employer or by the Pensions Regulator, or as legal adviser to existing trustees. Our experience includes dealing with:
- Priorities on winding up
- Reducing the deficit
- Complying with the disclosure requirements
- Advising on trustees' duties, powers and discretions
- Pension Protection Fund issues
- Eligibility for the Financial Assistance Scheme
- Prior breaches of trust and recovery of scheme assets
- Drafting member announcements
- Trustee protection
- Enhanced transfer value exercises
All Partners and Associates in
Legal Advice.