The DC Governance Group has developed a solution to a problem that has plagued the pension industry for several years. Today a template for the DC Chair’s Statement has been published drafted by leading pension lawyers and consultants which aims to reduce the time taken in production of the statement and reduce costs. The PLSA is encouraging trustees and providers to use this template as a starting point for producing their own scheme-specific version.

Laura Myers, Chair of the DC Governance Group and Head of DC at LCP says,

“The idea behind producing a chair’s statement is to demonstrate good governance to members. However, in reality the production cost of these has ballooned out of control due to the concerns of how the regulations can be interpreted, caused in part by a mandatory penalty regime in regulation, with its accompanying naming and shaming, causing nervousness in the industry. This has led to more focus on producing a statement than good governance itself”

Tim Box, Senior Consultant in LCP’s Pension Technical Department reinforced Myers comments:

“This has long been a concern for trustees and that’s why I am delighted to have contributed to this template statement. It will hopefully provide a useful starting point and guide for trustees to help simplify the production time and cost on documenting their governance so they can instead focus these costs on the areas that will make tangible improvements to members outcomes.”

The template is being kindly hosted by the PLSA and the DC Governance Group appreciates the PLSA’s support with publishing this template enabling to the Group to help a large number of DC schemes.

The founding members of the DC Governance Group, all of who contributed to this template are listed below:

Anna Copestake, ARC Pensions Law;
Charlotte Feld, Travers Smith;
Francois Barker, Eversheds Sutherland;
Helen Ball, Sackers;
Laura Myers, LCP;
Mark Baker, Pinsent Masons; and
Rona Train, Hymans

With Special thanks to the help of:

Aby Cohen, ARC Pensions Law
Brenda Kite, Hymans
Tim Box, LCP.