Trustee Training Deadline is approaching

The deadline for trustee training is February 1^st 2014.  Trustee training ensures that occupational pension schemes are run to the highest level of governance and compliance.  ITL are an established provider of independent professional trustee services to occupational pension schemes.

ITL are approved trustee trainers with the Pensions Board and have developed an online trustee training course to ensure all trustees can complete their obligations.  To begin the process, click here to complete a short survey.

More information can be found at www.trustee.ie.  Alternatively you can contact Elma Fox on Elma.Fox@Trustee.ie.

Meet the trustees

If you are the owner of / the advisor to an ITC SSAS, do you remember to hold your annual trustee meeting?

A trustee meeting provides an excellent opportunity for the trustees to meet with the scheme financial advisor and the administrator to do a review of the scheme. Issues that are typically discussed are investment strategy and performance, scheme governance, trustee training etc. - but it’s an open forum!

The owner of an ITC SSAS is also a trustee of the SSAS, ITC being the other trustee. This is one of the key features of the ITC SSAS. The Pensions Board’s Trustee Manual, which sets down rules of conduct for trustees of occupational pension schemes, prescribes that trustees should meet at least once every year. It is most appropriately done just after the issue of the annual scheme accounts.

In ITC, we issue an invitation to a trustee meeting and the meeting agenda with every set of annual accounts. The accounts and the invitation are forwarded to the member trustee and, if we have been requested to do so, to the financial advisor. It is then up to the trustees and the financial advisor to agree the timing of the trustee meeting – but it must be held.

The meeting can be done over the phone or by meeting in the ITC offices. At the end of the meeting, the trustees observe their duty to sign the annual accounts. Minutes of the Meeting are agreed.

On occasion, issues of a legal or technical character arise. The trustee meeting is the perfect opportunity for agreeing how to solve them.

Make sure that you hold a trustee meeting at least once a year. It’s a great opportunity –  it’s your duty!

 

Tommy Nielsen

ITC Consulting

Trustee Training Deadline is tomorrow 1st February

As the deadline for Trustee Training is upon us, Trustee Manager, Elma Fox, discusses the last chance to comply with the deadline with Ian Guider on Newstalk's Breakfast Business.

The deadline for trustee training is tomorrow, 1st February 2012, and there is a concern that many due to complete the training are unaware of their obligations. We have developed on-line tools to help define the requirements and to complete the training. More information can be found at www.trustee.ie.

Listen to Elma's interview with Ian Guider here, at 07:56. 

New Years Resolution!

Complete trustee training and avoid €2k fine!

Almost two years ago, the Pensions Board introduced a requirement for all pension scheme trustees to complete trustee training. For any trustees appointed prior to that date they have two years to complete the training so the 1^st February 2012 is the deadline for many.   

The concern is that many who are due to complete the training have not yet done so because of lack of awareness of their obligations. 

3 Common Misconceptions

·      There is an assumption that this training is for bigger pension schemes only but that’s not the case.  If the employer fail to provide training to all the relevant parties they may be prosecuted. In addition a trustee who does not undergo the training may be subject to an on-the-spot fine of €2,000 by the Pensions Board.

·         One or two person company pension schemes where the employer is the trustee.  Many of these employers may not realise they are still officially the trustees of such schemes particularly where the scheme was established for an employee who has since left the company.  However,  the employer remains as the trustee and must comply with the requirements.

·         Directors must receive training even if the scheme is only established for one of them. The key point is that; if the employer is the trustee (as is normal for one person schemes) then ALL the directors must complete the training.

Independent Trustee Company have developed an on-line tool to help those who are unsure of their requirements find out if they are actually required to complete the training.  It’s a quick process and can be found on www.trustee.ie