Appointing a professional sole trustee takes the administrative burden of running an occupational pension scheme off your shoulders.
Running an occupational pension scheme has always been a complex business, and it’s increasingly tough for companies and trustees to devote enough time to their schemes.
Schemes used to be a key part of a company’s employee benefits package. However, these days many are focused on managing legacy liabilities. It’s also getting harder to find employees who are willing to take on the fiduciary responsibility that comes with being a sole trustee.
We’ve been acting as sole trustees to pension schemes since we founded Entrust in 1994. That experience means that all our procedures are designed to allow us to take on full responsibility for running a pension scheme while ensuring that stakeholders stay engaged at all times.
Our team-based approach to our sole trustee services is backed by a robust governance structure that provides peer-review of all significant decisions. Each trustee appointment is led by an experienced Trustee Director, supported by a dedicated Trustee Associate. What’s more, we protect stakeholders’ interests by adopting the highest standards of governance encouraged by the Pensions Regulator.
Outsourcing the governance of a scheme to a third party is a big step for many companies. That’s why we tailor our approach to the circumstances of each scheme and set up bespoke reporting and consultation arrangements to meet all needs.
Succession planning is one of the biggest challenges facing schemes today. By tackling this issue at an early stage, we can put in place transitional arrangements for appointing a sole trustee which allow everyone involved to feel comfortable working with a professional trustee.
They understand the trustee perspective very well as many of the practitioners also act as professional trustees.
We help any organisation that has a defined benefit pension scheme. When acting as a sole trustee we work particularly closely with finance directors and owner-managers to enable them to spend more time running their businesses.