Monday, November 21, 2011

TUC Trustee Conference 2011: Fiduciary Duty for Trustees

This is from last weeks TUC Member Trustee Network Annual Conference at Congress House.  I missed the morning session due to regional meetings.  Which was a shame.  Especially the
Steve Webb MP (Minster for Pensions) keynote address.

I came in during the end of the panel discussion on "Fiduciary duty for Trustees". Which in the exciting world of pensions is a "hot topic". It use to be the case that Pension Trustees were told that they could not consider any other investment issues except maximising financial returns. This has recently been turned on its head.

As panel member,Thompson's solicitor Ivan Walker put it, there could be a breach of your duties as a trustee if you do NOT consider environment, social and governance (ESG) issues. Will Oulton from Mercer pointed out how many companies boast about their Corporate ESG activities yet when you ask them about their company pension fund ESG you get blank looks.

Christine Berry from Fair Pensions asked trade union pension trustees to reclaim their funds from outdated dogma which suits the interests of the financial services industry. I'll post further on the conference when I can.

No comments: