WELCOME TO OUR LATEST EDITION OF OUR TRUSTEE QUARTERLY UPDATE!

Our June Trustee Quarterly Update highlights key developments for pension scheme trustees.  The past quarter has seen a particularly large number of important developments, as the Government and Pensions Regulator have been busy fleshing out the detail of measures in the Pension Schemes Act 2021 such as major changes to the transfer values regime, and new criminal offences where an act puts pension scheme benefits at risk.  

Pensions Regulator: what are the key developments for scheme trustees?

In this section we look at the latest developments on scheme funding, including the likely timescale for the Pensions Regulator's new DB funding code of practice, and key points for trustees in the Regulator's annual funding statement.  The Pensions Regulator has also published more detail on how it plans to exercise its new criminal sanction powers and broadened "moral hazard" powers under the Pension Schemes Act 2021.  We give our thoughts on what this means for scheme trustees.  For more on these and other developments, see our Pensions Regulator update.

What happens if a rule change "hard wires" RPI into the pension increase rule by accident?

We look at the case of Iggesund Paperboard v Messenger where the court had to decide whether to reverse a scheme rule change which seemed inconsequential at the time, but accidentally "hard wired" RPI-based pension increases into the scheme rules.  For more detail, see our Case update.

Pensions Ombudsman: recent decisions that trustees need to know about

Is it reasonable for trustees to insist on seeing a member's passport and birth certificate before bringing a pension into payment?  Can trustees refuse to make a transfer if they can't decide whether the receiving scheme is a QROPS or not?  How has the Ombudsman's approach to transfers and pension scams recently changed?  If members complain about a benefit change, what will the Ombudsman's approach be?  See our Pensions Ombudsman update on recent Ombudsman decisions that deal with these issues.

Helping members with retirement decisions: legal pitfalls for scheme trustees

Can providing unsolicited transfer values or illustrative benefit figures to members amount to investment advice requiring FCA authorisation?  Could trustees be liable if they provide details of an IFA to members and that IFA then provides bad advice?  See our FCA Update for the latest news from the FCA and Pensions Ombudsman on these issues.

Consultation on major changes to the transfer values regime

The Government is consulting on major changes to the law on transfer values.  In future trustees may need to make additional checks or require the member to take "scams guidance" from the Money and Pensions Service depending on the type of receiving scheme.  Deciding which requirements apply won't always be straightforward, with trustees potentially liable if they get it wrong.  For details of this and other recent consultations, click here.

HMRC announcements

See our HMRC update for the latest pensions-related developments from HMRC.

Pension Protection Fund

For the PPF's plans to raise a Fraud Compensation Fund levy and change actuarial assumptions used for section 179 valuations, click here.

DC schemes: mandatory simpler annual benefit statements and other developments

The Government is consulting on requiring a shorter simplified format for benefit statements issued by money purchase schemes used for auto-enrolment.  It also plans to change the rules on permitted charges.  A DWP review has found that the law in relation to chair's statements is failing to work as intended. A new working group has been established to tackle the issue of small pension pots.  For details of these developments, see our DC schemes update.

Latest on pensions dashboards and other miscellaneous developments

For the latest on pensions dashboards, enforcing judgments in EU countries post-Brexit, the ICO's new standard contractual clauses for transferring personal data outside the UK, and other "miscellaneous" developments, click here.