Most company pension schemes in the UK, such as the Lifestyle Plan, are set up as trusts. There are two main reasons for this:
The Company appoints four Trustees, with another four trustees being elected by the members, as follows:
The term of office of the elected Trustees is normally four years, so that one elected Trustee retires at each Annual Meeting.
Carolyn McCall (Chair) - Chief Executive, Guardian Media Group
Andrew Miller - Group Finance Director, Guardian Media Group
Chris Elliott - Managing Editor, Guardian Editorial
Carolyn Gray - Group HR Director, Guardian Media Group
Andy Beven - Observer - GN&M constituency
Judy Gordon - M.E.N. - all divisions, except GN&M constituency
Bob Wilde - M.E.N. - all active members constituency
Ian Donnelly - M.E.N. - all active members constituency
The trustees normally meet four times a year. At Trustee meetings if any question requires decision by a vote, this is by a simple majority with the Chairman of the meeting having a casting vote in the event of an equality of votes.
Trustees have a number of very important duties and responsibilities, including those listed below. In practice, the trustees delegate some tasks, e.g. GMG Pensions Department handle the administration and most of the communications to members.
The role of the trustees is to provide an appropriate range of funds and to review the investment strategies of the various funds from time to time, but it should be stressed this does not include the trustees trying to forecast investment market movements.
It is important to understand that in a money purchase arrangement, such as the Lifestyle Plan, it is the responsibility of members to ensure that the funds in which they are invested are best suited to their individual requirements.
Each trustee must have knowledge and understanding of:
Each trustee must be familiar with the Lifestyle Plan documents: