Case Study: Corporate Sole Trustee appointed to reduce sponsor's governance workload
Driver(s) for change:
- A well-known housing association faced unique challenges following a series of mergers that resulted in the sponsor amassing 9 different pension schemes
- Streamlined governance-with only a handful of employees out of a 1000+ workforce still in this particular scheme it was decided that this particular scheme would transition from a board of trustees to a professional corporate sole trusteeship model to reduce the pensions governance workload and allow the sponsor to focus on more strategic objectives
Key challenges presented clearly and transparently by LawDeb:
- Continuity and effective knowledge-sharing between outgoing trustee directors and the LawDeb trustee
- Maintaining high administration service standards
LawDeb’s Solution:
- A Consultative Committee was established containing two former ENTs, one former MNT and a pensions manager to provide continuity, historic knowledge, and advice pertaining to administration service levels regarding scheme members.
- The committee met twice a year in addition to the LawDeb team attending the final trustee meeting for continuity purposes.
- The transition to a PCST model ensured the smooth running of the scheme and a significantly reduced workload for the sponsor as well as the swift implementation of a full LDI.
- LawDeb was successfully able to establish an open and collaborative relationship with the sponsor, ensuring full trust in LawDeb’s service offerings and bringing a higher level of professionalism to the scheme’s governance and performance.
- LawDeb’s primary objective is to reduce the ongoing running costs of the scheme by implementing efficient budgeting and invoicing processes and to streamline the governance of the scheme resulting in lower maintenance and higher overall performance