London 4th March Freshfields event write up

Posted: 05 Mar, 2020

Despite concerns about Coronavirus we had an excellent turnout for the latest event kindly hosted by Freshfields. We were given a highly professional presentation by Dawn Heath and Lindsay Hingston on the anticipated changes to pension legislation in the UK.

The background is of course the political reaction to the events at BHS and Carillion where Select Committee reports highlighted the potential vulnerability of pension schemes to corporate actions, and the perceived lack of protection for defenceless pensioners through the current regulatory regime.

It is therefore not surprising that the proposed legislation contains some far reaching and potentially draconian changes; prison sentences of up to 7 years, fines of up to £1million. Of even greater concern is the extent to which the remit of the legislation would include suppliers, lenders, advisers, the pension trustees themselves and indeed anyone who by their actions might prejudice directly or indirectly the strength of the employer support provided to a defined benefit pension scheme.

It is clear that the political will to implement the changes exists and quite what ends up as the final law will need to be followed closely.

Dawn and Lindsay covered this highly technical issue in very clear and understandable way and it generated much debate over the subsequent networking drinks.

Very many thanks to Dawn and Lindsay for their presentation and to the wider Freshfields team for their excellent hospitality.

Events such as this show the tremendous value that membership of TMA brings; high quality market relevant information, and great networking opportunities.  To become a TMA UK member simply click here and you can start to attend the networking event FREE of charge.