• Home
  • Admin/Tech
  • Benefits
  • Buzz
  • DB
  • DC
  • Diversity
  • Investment
  • Law & regulation
  • Risk reduction
  • Events
  • Whitepapers
  • Spotlights
  • Digital Edition
  • PPTV
  • Newsletters
  • Sign in
  •  
      • Newsletters
      • Account details
      • Contact support
      • Sign out
     
    •  

      You are currently accessing ProfessionalPensions via your Enterprise account.

      If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

      If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

      Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

      Email: [email protected]

      • Sign in
  • Follow us
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Newsletters
    • YouTube
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • Events
    • Upcoming events
      event logo
      Admin & Data Forum 2021

      This concise half-day event will explore a variety of different issues affecting scheme managers, through a combination of informative presentations and interactive panel debates, including GMP equalisation, the pensions dashboard, the accuracy and quality of members data and the latest trends in scheme administration.

      • Date: 04 Mar 2021
      event logo
      Defined Benefit Consolidation Conference

      Professional Pensions is hosting this concise digital event on the 25th March to provide a crucial update on where the current regulation stands on DB Consolidators, assess the different models available, what the expected funding levels are and the governance requirements. This event will be a combination of short presentations followed by live Q&A’s with our expert speakers allowing plenty of time to answer your questions.

      • Date: 25 Mar 2021
      • Digital Conference
      event logo
      Sustainable Investment Festival 2021

      The Sustainable Investment Festival will run online from 22-24 June and will include thought-provoking presentations from renowned keynote speakers, innovative breakout events and sessions specifically tailored to meet the information needs of fund selectors, financial advisers, pension consultants, trustees and scheme managers.

      • Date: 22 Jun 2021
      • Online, Online
      event logo
      UK Pensions Awards 2021

      The UK Pensions Awards – now in their 24th year – remain the industry's most prestigious accolades. They shine the light on excellence and recognise the advisers, providers and investment managers that offer the highest level of innovation, performance and service to occupational pension schemes and their members, and have done the most to improve this over the past year.

      • Date: 14 Sep 2021
      • London
      View all events
      Follow our Professional Pension Events

      Sign up to receive email alerts about our events

      Sign up

  • Whitepapers
    • How DC schemes can gain exposure to different asset classes in a low-return environment

      So far, DC plans have largely been focused on the onset of auto-enrolment and changes to the regulatory framework - be it the ‘charge cap,' ‘pension freedoms' or consultations around ‘value for money', says Annabel Tonry, Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM).

      Download
      Pension freedoms three years on

      In 2015 George Osborne, then the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, decided that those age over 55 could take much more of their pension in cash. This has since opened up a range of possibilities for DC scheme members in the world of pensions.

      Download
      Find whitepapers
      Search by title or subject area
      View all whitepapers
  • Spotlights
  • Digital Edition
Professional Pensions
Professional Pensions
  • Home
  • Admin/Tech
  • Benefits
  • Buzz
  • DB
  • DC
  • Diversity
  • Investment
  • Law & regulation
  • Risk reduction
 
    • Newsletters
    • Account details
    • Contact support
    • Sign out
 
  •  

    You are currently accessing ProfessionalPensions via your Enterprise account.

    If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

    If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

    Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

    Email: [email protected]

    • Sign in
  • Law and Regulation

Trustees will need to be corporate finance experts under new TPR powers

Amin: The new rules mean trustees will have to be corporate finance experts
Amin: The new rules mean trustees will have to be corporate finance experts
  • Stephanie Baxter
  • 18 January 2021
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
0 Comments

Pension trustees will have much more involvement in business discussions and corporates will need to think more about pensions when the watchdog’s increased powers come into force, LCP says.

The new powers for The Pensions Regulator (TPR) under the Pensions Schemes Bill, which is likely to receive Royal Assent in the coming weeks, will have a far-reaching impact on corporate Britain, with directors, lenders and pension trustees potentially being criminally liable. The new powers, which cover around 5,000 businesses defined benefit schemes, need to be on the radar of all key decision-makers to avoid potential fines and/or jail time.

While TPR will publish detailed regulation and guidance before the new powers become effective, LCP principal Laura Amin warned sponsors and trustees and advisers need to understand the implications now.

Related articles

  • People Moves Blog: DWP appoints two non-executive board members; Lothian Pension Fund chief executive steps down; FCA expands exec team with four female appointments
  • MetLife reinsures $5bn of Rothesay liabilities
  • LawDeb grows pension revenues by 8.3%
  • Longevity assumptions retain stability despite Covid

She said trustees will likely have to have "increasing involvement" in discussions around some routine business activities.

In the annual funding statements last April, TPR said trustees have to know a business's cashflow, when deciding to give businesses a leeway on deficit repair contributions, for example.

"This involves looking at transactions that might mean money going to the parent company that's out of reach of the pension scheme," said Amin. "Suddenly, pension trustees will have to be corporate finance experts so trustees either themselves need to be really on top of all of this stuff and need to know the questions to ask, or have access to advisors who are on the cutting edge of corporate finance."

She said corporate Britain needs to be planning to incorporate the pensions dimension into everything going forward, and that they cannot afford to see pensions as a separate issue.

Amin added: "There is a whole set of people who have never had to think really deeply about the pension scheme's place in the pecking order, suddenly need to have the pension scheme metaphorically - if not literally in the room - when key corporate decisions are made.

"Every corporate decision now has to be made in the light of this pension legislation, including dividends decisions, restructuring, giving the bank security over assets. For example, if the company wants to borrow some money from a bank and put up a factory as security - if everything goes wrong in three years' time, and the pension scheme doesn't get its money, someone might well say ‘if you were willing to put the factory up security for the bank, why weren't you willing to leave it available for the pension scheme'?"

Directors and others will need to take action to avoid falling foul of the new TPR powers around contribution notices.

The circumstances in which TPR can impose contribution notices on companies and directors to require them to make cash payments to a scheme are very narrow. The Act broadens this power by introducing two new contribution notice tests which are more objective. For example, corporate decisions such as material restructuring or dividend decisions, may breach these new tests.

"Responding to these new rules appropriately will be particularly challenging for those businesses who are struggling to recover from Covid-19, or are badly hit by Brexit," said Amin.

  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
  • Topics
  • Law and Regulation
  • Laura Amin
  • Pension Schemes Bill
  • Lane Clark & Peacock
  • LCP
  • The Pensions Regulator
  • TPR

More on Law and Regulation

The investigation is the second of its three-part inquiry and the Committee said it concluded taking evidence for its first part in January.
MPs to investigate advice in ongoing pensions freedoms inquiry

MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee (WPC) will assess the availability of financial advice in the second stage of its pensions freedom inquiry.

  • Law and Regulation
  • 23 February 2021
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published a regulatory intervention report on the case of jailed former charity for the disabled trustee and chief executive Patrick McLarry.
TPR publishes full details of charity pension trustee fraud case

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published a regulatory intervention report on the case of jailed former charity for the disabled trustee and chief executive Patrick McLarry.

  • Law and Regulation
  • 23 February 2021
This is the fourth win for Uber drivers
Uber drivers win pension rights

Uber drivers have once again won a legal battle to access to workers’ rights including auto-enrolment (AE) pensions, the minimum wage, and paid holidays.

  • Law and Regulation
  • 19 February 2021
The latest Lloyds decision was about transfers
The challenge of GMP equalisation continues

Pension professionals will need to get to grips with a number of points in order to effectively implement the most recent GMP decision, write Stephen Richards and Julia Ward.

  • Law and Regulation
  • 19 February 2021
Chancellor Rishi Sunak
Finalisation of net pay review vital in Budget, Now Pensions says

Chancellor Rishi Sunak must conclude the net pay review in the upcoming Budget to support the retirement income of low-paid workers, Now Pensions says.

  • Law and Regulation
  • 15 February 2021
blog comments powered by Disqus
Back to Top

Most read

BT, Ford and M&S schemes granted extension for legal challenge over government's decision to align RPI with CPIH
BT, Ford and M&S schemes granted extension for legal challenge over government's decision to align RPI with CPIH
Rothesay secures £7bn of pension benefits
Rothesay secures £7bn of pension benefits
Chancellor Sunak 'likely' to freeze lifetime allowance
Chancellor Sunak 'likely' to freeze lifetime allowance
Scottish Widows adds 289,000 members to build workplace market presence
Scottish Widows adds 289,000 members to build workplace market presence
TPR publishes full details of charity pension trustee fraud case
TPR publishes full details of charity pension trustee fraud case
Trustpilot

 

  • Contact Us
  • Marketing solutions
  • About Incisive Media
  • Terms and conditions
  • Policies
  • Careers
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • YouTube

© Incisive Business Media (IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR, registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013

Digital publisher of the year
Digital publisher of the year 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2017
Loading