TRUSTEES: mandatory role, or wot?

codger

Help from the experts here would be greatly appreciated. . .

Mrs Codger is shortly to retire in order to spend her twilight years (she's 104, after all) with Mr C, who retired several years ago, aged around 35.

But: to be serious. Mrs C is employed at a small enterprise. Mrs C has been there the past 10 years and has contributed regularly to the company's pension scheme. Only a dozen employees are in the scheme, which takes the usual form of employee monthly contribution + employer monthly contribution = a pension of whatever.

Mrs C retires soon. All seems well, but a question has now arisen over the administration of the fund. No need to go into details, but it would help both of us if anyone here could clear up the following:

1) Is it mandatory (a legal requirement) for a pension scheme operating in the UK -- regardless of size -- to have Trustees?

2) Is it mandatory for the identity of those Trustees to be known?

Thanks!

EdInvestor

Yes, a company pension scheme has trustees. The trustees may be an insurance company, depending in what kind of pension it is.

Retired_I.F.A.

It's not a pension scheme Mr C needs it's viagra.:D

Debt_Free_Chick

codger wrote: »

1) Is it mandatory (a legal requirement) for a pension scheme operating in the UK -- regardless of size -- to have Trustees?

It depends on how the scheme is constituted. A trust based scheme needs trustees - or a trustee company. A contract based scheme doesn't.

Furthermore, a trust based scheme will need to have at least one third of the trustees selected by the members. Unless all the trustees are independent of the employer (which could be the case if a trustee company is used).

More details needed, to give an answer specific to this situation.

2) Is it mandatory for the identity of those Trustees to be known?

Thanks!

Yes. And they will usually be listed in the annual report. Members do not need to be given a copy of the annual report, automatically. But they must be given a copy if they ask for it.

Many schemes run by small employers these days are Stakeholder pensions. These aren't "schemes" at all - the employee has his/her own Stakeholder pension plan the employer simply puts money in it. These are contract based plan, so there will be no "trustees" in the sense that the pension provider performs the role of a trustee.

codger

Retired_I.F.A. wrote: »

It's not a pension scheme Mr C needs it's viagra.:D

Oi! That's the name of my sister-in-law!


Gawd, some of the people they let post on here. . .

codger

Sincere thanks to DebtFreeChick and EdInvestor. None at all to Retired IFA, who will be hearing from my solicitor shortly.

Anyway. Seriously. Being extremely young and, um, vigorous, the topic of pensions is one with which I'm not overly familiar -- so (and I am being serious now!) apologies for what may well have been a pretty naive question. It's just that the issue that's cropped up prompted the question about who, or what, is a trustee and who might they be (on the assumption, erroneous or not, that a trustee might be approached on this matter.)

DebtFree and EdInvestor: I think you're right. This is a very small outfit and the payments are managed by a locally-based insurance brokers -- so the latter are probably the scheme's trustee(s).

Sincere thanks to you both for some much appreciated advice, and for helping this old brain of mine clear some of the fog. :T




* Should've read, this 'young' brain of mine.

Retired_I.F.A.

Dunno about the trustees but you cant trust these codgers young or old can you, on one hand they thank you for a useful post and the other threaten you with solicitors letters. :rolleyes:

Note please I never gave an answer not because I've forgot, nor because I'm no longer insured for bad advice claims or even that I'm old and getting more and more senile by the day as the truth is I never had a clue, which is slightly more than most trustees.

codger

Retired_I.F.A. wrote: »

Dunno about the trustees but you cant trust these codgers young or old can you, on one hand they thank you for a useful post and the other threaten you with solicitors letters. :rolleyes:

I've just realised, I know even less about libel than I do about pension trustees so apparently, I can't sue anybody for anything. Though I'd really like to have a go at Paul Burrell.

Anyway, my sister in law is, it turns out, called Veronica; I misread the wording of the earlier post. Viagra isn't anybody I know.

I was going to say something else but it's gone. Anyway. Sincere thanks to retired IFA and apologies for any inconvenience inadvertently caused. [Will that do it?] [No: Ed.]