UK - Alexander Forbes Trustee Services has today launched a service that it claims frees insolvency practitioners (IPs) from the liability of being a trustee of an insolvent company's defined contribution (DC) pension scheme.
Tim Culverhouse, managing director of the firm, explained when IPs are currently appointed to a company and a trust-based money-purchase pension scheme in force, in the majority of cases the IP effectively becomes trustee, representing the company.
"They are nowadays trying to keep these things on a fairly short timeframe, and the difficulty has always been when winding up a money purchase pension scheme they, on occasions, have to keep the whole insolvency going until it is done," he said.
Through the firm's new Trust Ease service, the company aims to enable IPs to avoid such delays and complications which could arise when winding up a pension scheme.
"If you appoint us as a trustee of the pension scheme, we will wind it up on your behalf, which means that they can close their books earlier," explained Culverhouse.
The offering was formally launched in April, though has so far been kept "fairly low-key", he added.
The new service is only relevant to employer-sponsored DC pension schemes, the company stressed.
If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Carolyn Bandel on +44 (0)20 7261 4622 or email carolyn.bandel@ipe.com
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