Trusteeship

Running an occupational pension scheme has always been complex, and it’s increasingly tough for companies and trustees to devote enough time to their schemes.

Appointing an independent trustee is key to developing a long-term plan for a scheme. It adds value and direction to trustee meetings and helps guide the trustee board safely through key decision-making processes.

We have been acting as a professional trustee since Entrust was founded in 1994. Our role can take three forms, depending on what best suits the scheme and its sponsor.

We offer three approaches to trusteeship:

All three approaches are delivered by the same Entrust team, using the same methodology and the same governance standards. The difference is the role we take on the trustee board.

1. Sole trusteeship 2. Chair of trustees 3. Co-trustee
What is our role? We are the only trustee. We take sole legal responsibility for all trustee matters. We chair the trustee board, agreeing agendas, signing off minutes, and providing direction on the scheme’s direction of travel. We sit on the trustee board alongside the sponsor’s other appointees, contributing expertise to the board’s collective decision-making.
When does it suit a scheme? When the sponsor wants to outsource trusteeship entirely, releasing the current trustees from their obligations. When the trustee board wants an experienced independent chair to lead its decision-making. When the trustee board wants an independent voice alongside its existing trustees.
Who do we work most closely with? Scheme service providers and key employer contacts, enabling them to spend more time running their businesses. The trustee board, working collaboratively with co-trustees and advisers. The trustee board, working collaboratively with co-trustees and advisers.
How are decisions made? We take the decisions. Stakeholders are consulted through bespoke reporting and consultation arrangements. The board makes decisions collaboratively. We chair the meetings, manage the agenda and adviser process, and shape the direction of travel. The board makes decisions collaboratively. We bring our expertise and knowledge of similar situations to facilitate the decision-making.
What’s included in the role? Ongoing trusteeship and secretarial services, responding to member queries, adviser management, all compliance activity, work on actuarial valuation and investment strategy reviews, ongoing sponsor collaboration. Everything in co-trustee, plus agreement of agendas and minutes, and adviser management and oversight. Attendance at trustee meetings (with preparation and follow-up), regular liaison with co-trustees, employer contacts and advisers between meetings, proactive monitoring of developments which may require trustee action, independent oversight of compliance activity.

How do we help?

Sole trusteeship

Schemes used to be a key part of a company’s employee benefits package. These days many employers are focused on managing legacy liabilities, and it is increasingly hard to find employees willing to take on the fiduciary responsibility that comes with being a scheme trustee. Appointing a professional sole trustee takes the administrative burden of running an occupational pension scheme off your shoulders.

We have been acting as a sole trustee to pension schemes since 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 effective collaboration with all scheme stakeholders.

As sole corporate trustee, we assume responsibility for running the scheme and release the current trustees from their obligations to it. We work collaboratively with the sponsor on matters such as investment and funding strategy, journey planning and bringing the scheme through to full risk settlement, as and when the sponsor would like us to do so.

Chair of trustees

When we are appointed as chair of an existing trustee board, we take responsibility for leading the board’s work. This includes agreeing meeting agendas with advisers, chairing the meetings themselves, signing off minutes, and being more directive on the scheme’s direction of travel between meetings working closely with the employer. We seek authority from the board to work with the advisers outside meetings so that projects progress as needed.

We place particular emphasis on our fellow trustees’ knowledge and experience, so that the board’s decision-making benefits from a diverse range of views. The chair role is delivered alongside everything we do as a co-trustee.

Co-trustee

When we are appointed as a co-trustee, we join an existing trustee board and work collaboratively with the other trustees, service providers and the employer. We use our expertise and knowledge to facilitate decision-making in trustee meetings, while recognising the valuable historic scheme-specific knowledge our co-trustees bring.

Where it adds value, we work with the board to consider delegation structures that allow Entrust to take faster action on the matters that can require urgent trustee response outside of meetings, such as data breach management or use of trustee discretion on benefit payments.

The same benefits, no matter the approach

Whichever approach you appoint us under, the same things apply.

  • Team-based delivery model: Each appointment is led by an experienced core practitioner team, including a Trustee Director, with the wider Entrust team behind them.
  • Peer-reviewed governance: All significant decisions are peer-reviewed within our governance structure and decision-making framework.
  • The same standards: We adopt the highest standards of governance encouraged by The Pensions Regulator.
  • Continuous governance model: Responsive, ongoing trustee oversight that keeps scheme matters moving forward.
  • Efficient governance: Scheme governance benefits from the economies of scale of our wider portfolio of professional trustee appointments.
  • Bespoke reporting and consultation: Reporting cadence, consultation arrangements and sponsor involvement are tailored to suit each scheme.
  • Transition planning: Succession planning is one of the biggest challenges facing schemes today. By tackling it early, we can mitigate any risk and provide continuity of knowledge and experience.

Who do we help?

We help any organisation that has a defined benefit pension scheme.

When acting as sole trustee, we work particularly closely with key employer contacts, enabling them to spend more time running their businesses.

When acting as chair of trustees or as a co-trustee, we work particularly closely with the existing trustees bringing technical knowledge and experience to help them carry out their roles more effectively, and we work closely with senior management in the sponsoring organisation to give them reassurance that the scheme is being well run.