Industry News
Fears of conflict of interest in pension
03 January 2012
Business World
The Pensions Board was today called on to introduce new directives to eliminate alleged conflicts of interest in the decision-making within Defined Benefit (DB) pension schemes.
IFG Corporate Pensions said it believes that the roles of trustee and financial director or any other company representative need to be separated to ensure effective and fair management of pension schemes.
According to Fionan O'Sullivan, Director of Corporate Pensions at IFG Corporate Pensions, "In theory, trustees represent the scheme and therefore should make decisions in the best interest of all scheme members without considering what may be best for the company or any individual employees. Where necessary, they should seek advice from their own independent advisers".
The leading pension advisors believe that in any company the financial director/company representative should simply represent the interests of the company, which may or not always be in line with the aims of the pension scheme trustees. The problem is that in many cases there is no distinction, the trustees and the company representatives are the same individuals.
Fionan continued, "Added to the mix is the fact that the financial director/company representative is usually a member of the pension scheme with a vested interest in protecting his or her own benefits. In the majority of cases, the overlap in roles doesn't cause any major issue; however, where pension schemes are in deficit and difficult decisions need to be made, it is clearly not appropriate for this situation to continue".
"The large number of schemes with deficits and the resultant need to adjust some or all of the employees' pension benefits as the solvency of the schemes comes under pressure has highlighted the need for the clear separation of the roles of trustee, employer representative and member representative."
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