Trustees should forget members' future benefits, conference hears

The law firm's pensions  partner Rosalind Knowles told an audience at the National Association of Pension Funds 2010 annual conference in Liverpool, it was not their legal responsibility to engage sponsors over ensuring the best possible new scheme, simply to protect accrued income.

"Is it part of a trustee's function to worry about future remuneration," she said. "Or is that the part that the employer and the relevant trade unions have to play?

"Rather trustees should focus on ensuring the security of the benefits that their  members have already earned - things that are already there and absolute."

Meanwhile BlackRock DC chief Steve Rumbles told the same delegation scheme administration should be tailored to individual members, based on the likelihood of their scrutinising the management of their plan.

"For me, administration can cause the most headaches in DC," he said. "Executives are the ones who moan most, so make sure that your record keepers know who these people are."

He also warned it was unrealistic to expect members to take an interest in the investment of their pension pot, adding the most important thing to consider for trustees and sponsors seeking to establish a new money purchase arrangement, was the default  fund.

"Members really won't focus on investment," said Rumbles. "They say  they want choice but 89% choose the default option, so there is nothing  wrong with making that your focus."