Pensions

Providing you with innovative solutions for the management of pension liabilities and with clear and practical advice on all aspects of pensions law.

Our expertise covers establishing, merging, amending and winding up pension plans, as well as advising on tax and regulatory matters for pension plans. We advise on pension arrangements for senior executives. As part of our integrated and full service to you, we provide dispute resolution and litigation services in relation to pension plans. We identify and help you to resolve the pensions implications of corporate and financial transactions. We also develop new pension products, including cross-border funds.

We offer our clients the benefits of exceptional breadth of experience in the pensions field. Advising in conjunction with our insurance and regulatory practice, we have a market leading practice in buy in and buy out solutions and other risk management tools, including longevity protection techniques. Our practice encompasses:

• Advising trustees and employers on major changes to pension plans, including scheme closures and the addition of defined contribution and career average sections to existing final salary plans
• International transactions involving complex pension provisions in global and local sale agreements
• Negotiations with the Pensions Protection Fund in order to avoid employer insolvency
• Dealings with the Pensions Regulator including obtaining Regulator clearance for corporate activities
• Mitigating employer contribution obligations and liabilities for statutory debts
• Pensions aspects of contracts involving the transfer of employees from the public sector to the private sector
• Advising insurance companies and other product providers on pension fund investment issues.

We advise on the establishment of a wide range of pension products. In addition to buy-in and buy-out contracts, these include insured and unit trust based stakeholder pension plans; self-invested personal pension plans; group personal pension plans; deferred annuity contracts and innovative annuity products.