Supporting sole trustee implementation

Around half of the UK’s pension schemes now employ a professional trustee and of these, one in three has a professional corporate sole trustee - according to 2021 report from consultant, Lane Clark & Peacock*.

These findings come as no surprise to Mobius Life. We’re seeing more and more schemes with a sole professional trustee and we’ve been developing our services to meet their needs.

Some professional trustees assume the responsibility as a Chair/member of an existing trustee board working closely with lay trustees and the sponsoring employer. Others will be the sole trustee of the scheme working with the sponsor in making all the decisions on behalf of the scheme.

Often sole professional trustees work with multiple schemes. These are frequently small to mid-size schemes with assets of up to £200 million. This means professional trustees can control significant pools of assets in aggregate. We’re familiar with sole trustees acting for multiple schemes and being responsible for assets of over £1bn.

Sole trustees are taking on all the responsibility for implementation across all of their schemes and that can be daunting. This risk can be managed effectively by working with Mobius Life. Our investment administration capabilities mean that when they give an instruction it will be implemented efficiently, without them having to deal with multiple fund managers – or take on the implementation risk. Rebalancing, trigger point monitoring and transition management are all undertaken at the platform level allowing the trustee to concentrate on governance, strategy and delivering member benefits.

When sole trustees are working with multiple schemes, we take care of actions across all the schemes; for example, when LDI triggers are hit and adjusting leveraging levels are required. By pooling assets we can also give professional trustees access to more competitive fund management fees – or to funds which would otherwise have prohibitive minimum investment limits.

Trustees of all descriptions benefit from our independence. We deliver superior investment administration services, without the conflicts of being owned by an adviser or asset manager, or the lack of focus of being part of a major financial conglomerate.

It is likely more and more small to medium-sized pension schemes will appoint sole professional trustees in the future. And we are there to support them, by providing efficient investment and implementation. If you would like to find out more about our services for corporate trustees, please get in touch.

* Sole mates or Soul mates? Professional Corporate Sole Trustees and their sponsors, Lane Clark & Peacock, July 2021: https://www.lcp.uk.com/pensions-benefits/publications/sole-mates-or-soul-mates-professional-corporate-sole-trustees-and-their-sponsors/