Any Other Business: The mounting complexity of pension trusteeship has been met by a surge of information and intelligence sources. But how can trustees be successful prospectors as they mine the industry for useful nuggets?
Unparalleled change across the industry has challenged trustees to keep up with the legislators over the past 18 months.
The proliferation of information now available – via websites, online guides, seminars, webinars, teach-ins, dial-ins and conferences – will have helped many trustees through difficult periods, but with so many new options available trustees may struggle to cut through the noise to the information they really need.
You could spend every hour of every day reading volumes of stuff and attending volumes of meetings
Richard Butcher, PTL
Richard Butcher, managing director at professional trustee company PTL, said trustees have to be disciplined and mindful of the commercial environment in which they are operating.
“The landscape has woken up to the fact that trustees are a source of business,” he said. “Everybody is setting things up… to try and get trustees round the table so they have the opportunity to ply them with wine and sell their wares.”
This means that “you could spend every hour of every day reading volumes of stuff and attending volumes of meetings”.
Butcher advised that trustees seek out a range of views beyond the remit of their service provider, to gain views and insights which could become useful tools to challenge schemes' incumbent advisers.
Instead of wading through “volumes of stuff”, Butcher said “definitive change” affecting a scheme, whether legal, regulatory or a strategic development, could be a springboard for learning something new.
Investment education
When approaching new investment ideas, Butcher said it is important that trustees question whether new strategies are a “marketing ploy or a brand new idea that could be of use”.
Trustees should initially consult their existing advisers to get the "bare bones" on a new area before looking further afield.
Dan Mikulskis, managing director at consultancy Redington, said a lot of investment information currently available to trustees lacks a clear context and fails to provide a “logical next step”.
With a new thought-leadership platform for the industry, the Ampersand Institute, Redington is aiming to combine in-depth research and practical content, he said.
“We’re not afraid to get into the detail and tackle some pretty geeky stuff… it's deep content with a clear context,” said Mikulskis.
Trustee toolkit
The Pensions Regulator’s trustee toolkit remains a key resource for trustees at any stage in their career.
“We expect trustee board members to consider their level of knowledge and understanding and address any gaps," a spokesperson from the regulator said.
"Our trustee toolkit is free of charge and covers the whole of the trustee knowledge and understanding syllabus, and we expect more trustees to complete it.”
Last year the regulator started a debate on what a 21 century trustee needs to know and in 2016 will continue to explore ways of boosting trustee education and competence.
The spokesperson said: “In line with our educate-and-enable approach, we are keen to develop our existing support for trustees via new tools and guides.”
