gunnercooke LLP

This Practice Note provides an introduction for persons who are new to pensions law to the role of trustees and their advisers in a pension scheme. In particular, this Practice Note looks at the different types of trustees that may be encountered, trustee decision-making considerations, Trustee Knowledge and Understanding (TKU) requirements, funding and investment considerations, trustee liability and trustee protection issues like exoneration and indemnity clauses, trustee insurance and the operation of section 61 of the Trustee Act 1925, as well as the type of advisers trustees are likely to rely on to fulfil their duties.

This Practice Note provides an introduction for persons who are new to pensions law to the pension issues that arise, or may arise, on a business or asset sale. This includes determining what pension rights transfer under TUPE, so-called Beckmann and Martin issues, pension protection requirements applicable under TUPE post-transfer and section 75 debt issues.

This Practice Note provides an introduction for persons who are new to pensions law to discrimination issues in the pensions arena, including how anti-discrimination principles developed, the impact of case law requiring the equalisation of retirement ages in schemes (eg Barber v Guardian Royal Exchange, Coloroll v Russell, Preston v Wolverhampton), the issue of bridging pensions, the issue of offsets, principles relating to equal access to pension schemes and other types of discrimination.

This Practice Note provides an introduction for persons who are new to pensions law to the pension issues that arise on a corporate insolvency (including the availability of the Pension Protection Fund, the Financial Assistance Scheme and pre-packs) and personal bankruptcy.

This Practice Note provides an introduction for persons who are new to pensions law to the pension issues that arise, or may arise, on a share sale, depending on the type of pension arrangements of the target company. This includes the pension issues where the pension arrangements take the form of a personal pension scheme, a defined contribution (DC) occupational pension scheme or a defined benefit (DB) occupational pension scheme.

This Practice Note looks at the express and implied pension rights that may exist in a contract of employment and how those rights may be varied, whether from a pensions, trust law or employment perspective. This Practice Note also looks at applicable consultation requirements and the degree of overlap that may exist between pensions and employment consultation requirements.

This Practice Note provides an introduction for persons who are new to pensions law to the tax regime applicable to pensions since A-Day (6 April 2006), in particular the conditions to satisfy to benefit from the tax advantages available in respect of registered pension schemes. This Practice Note explores the lifetime allowance, the annual allowance and authorised payments.

This Practice Note covers primary protection which is ones of the earliest forms of lifetime allowance (LTA) protection (introduced on A-day). Among other things, this Practice Note covers the interaction of primary protection with enhanced protection, the application process, the impact of pension debits on divorce, lump sum death benefits, auto-enrolment requirements and the loss of primary protection.

This Practice Note explores the pensions considerations which arise from providing life assurance benefits (also known as death-in-service benefits or life cover benefits) through registered pension schemes and standalone registered life assurance schemes. This Practice Note also looks at the characteristics of standalone life assurance schemes and considers the extent to which occupational pension schemes can provide only death-in-service benefits without infringing section 255 of the Pensions Act 2004.

This Practice Note looks at some of the issues that need to be considered when restructuring defined benefit schemes, including amendment of governing documentation, contractual entitlements, employee consultation, and liability under section 75 of the Pensions Act 1995.

This Practice Note considers one of the earlier personal pension schemes, the retirement annuity contract and how it differs from personal pension schemes available today.

This Practice Note looks at types of executive retirement benefit plans by considering the characteristics of funded unapproved retirement benefit schemes (FURBS) and unfunded unapproved retirement benefit schemes (UURBS), which existed before A-day (6 April 2006), and the Employer Financed Retirement Benefit Schemes (EFRBS) which replaced FURBS and UURBS after A-day. This Practice Note also considers the tax treatment of pension contributions into an EFRBS, including the effect of the disguised remuneration legislation introduced by the Finance Act 2011 (part of the Government’s ‘anti-tax avoidance’ campaign).

This Practice Note looks at what is meant by a section 32 buy-out policy or (also referred to as a section 32 policy or buy-out policy); when a section 32 buy-out policy might be used; the tax position both pre and post 6 April 2006 (A-day) in relation to such policies; taking benefits under the section 32 policy; and the impact of block transfers.

This Practice Note provides an introduction for persons who are new to pensions law to the concept of a section 75 debt (also known as employer debt or statutory debt). It describes events leading to such a debt being triggered, the calculation of section 75 debts, the availability of a grace period, ways of dealing with a section 75 debt (either by way of an apportionment arrangement, a withdrawal arrangement or a deferred debt arrangement), relevant transfer deductions and group restructuring easements.

This Practice Note looks at the type of indemnities that may be encountered in share sales, including in relation to employer debt issues, the moral hazard powers of the Pension Regulator and sex equalisation issues. This Practice Note also looks at ways of limiting the scope of such indemnities, the type of factors that will determine their existence and drafting issues that may arise.

This Practice Note explains how to use a pension schedule on a share sale, the types of provisions commonly encountered in such a schedule and the issues that may occur when negotiating a pension schedule.

This Practice Note looks at the rules that apply to small self-administered pension schemes (SSASs), in particular in relation to borrowing, lending and investment, and how they have changed since 6 April 2006.

The pensions due diligence (DD) enquiries are drafted for the buyer and general in scope—in practice, they should be amended as necessary to reflect the circumstances of the relevant transaction (and relevant pension scheme). Not every enquiry will be relevant to every pension scheme, and also if the buyer if not taking on the scheme.

This set of notes and specimen documents forms an automatic enrolment (AE) pack intended to enable employers, including small and micro-employers, to deal with the requirement to enrol employees into an AE scheme.