Jennifer Bell

• Advising trustees on complex scheme restructurings and scheme mergers.

• Advising employers on scheme closures and restructurings.

• Day to day advice to trustees of pension schemes on a wide range of topics including in particular funding issues arising out of the Pensions Act 2004 Statutory Funding Objective, negotiation of both standard PPF format and scheme-specific funding guarantees and other contingent assets, discretionary trusts payments, ill health early retirement, Finance Act 2004 issues, pension sharing on divorce, IDR and Ombudsman complaints, MNT/MND requirements and conflicts of interest.

• Advising on the legal issues in DC Schemes including those arising out of the introduction of new and changes to existing DC investment options, trustee protections and DC Governance.

• Negotiation of investment management agreements with fund managers and investment policies with providers including L&G, BGI, Fidelity and PIMCO.

• Advising on Pension Protection Fund Guarantees and security issues, including extension of PPF guarantees.

• Advising on issues arising out of the winding up of pension schemes and securing of member benefits, including trustee insurance, benefit specifications, trustee disclosure requirements; buy ins and buy outs.

• Advising on company takeover issues as impacting on pension schemes and negotiating security for pension scheme trustees.

• Advising on corporate restructurings and making clearance applications, negotiating re flexible apportionment arrangements and related documentation; advising trustees in connection with a regulated apportionment arrangement agreed with TPR and the PPF.

Litigation experience

• Denny v Yeldon as the fourth defendant in an action challenging removal and appointment of Independent Trustees; Hoover Ltd v Hetherington and The Hoover Trust Fund (1987) Ltd [2002] relating to interpretation of early retirement wording for deferred members and employer consent requirement; Pitmans v The Telecommunications Group Plc [2004] relating to the application of s75 to multi-employer schemes; IBM UK Pensions Trust v IBM UK Holdings and Others [2012] relating to the rectification of Scheme deeds back to 1983 and most recently IBM v S Dalgleish, L Harrison and IBM UK Pensions Trust [2014].