Pension fund.

blueteedee

Does a pension fund require an independent financial advisor or can a trustee act as the advisor?.

dunstonh

Advisers are not normally allowed to act as trustee due to conflicts of interest and potential liability issues that their PI insurance is unlikely to cover them for.         So, a trustee is not normally the adviser.

a trust does not require an adviser in most cases.  However, the trustees have to be seen to be acting in best interests. That means they cannot impose their own views if they differ from that of the objective of the estate.  e.g. so the trustee doesnt use any risk based investments themselves as they do not like investing.  They should not do that with the trust.     Trustees can also be sued for mismanagment.   So, using an adviser protects the trustees.          However, most pensions do not have individuals as trustees (although it is possible with less common types of pension).      What type of pension is this?

Dox

blueteedee said:

Does a pension fund require an independent financial advisor or can a trustee act as the advisor?.

If you're talking about a trust-based pension scheme (and you clearly are, given you refer to 'a trustee'), the one thing drummed into trustees during their first training session is that they cannot and must not give advice to scheme members. Most trust based arrangements these days have a sole corporate trustee, but the directors of the corporate trustee are effectively the trustees.

The Pensions Act 1995 introduced a requirement for trustees to appoint certain advisers. Pension fund trustees can only take investment advice from an investment adviser they themselves have appointed, and the advice must be in writing.

They are not required to appoint an IFA, nor in most cases would they do so.