Arc Pensions Law LLP is delighted to have contributed to the PLSA’s new template for the DC Chair’s statement. It was drafted by the DC Governance Group, and aims to reduce unnecessary time and costs for trustees when complying with this governance requirement.

The DC Governance Group is comprised of leading pensions lawyers and consultants, and its founding members are:

• Anna Copestake, Arc Pensions Law
• Francois Barker, Eversheds Sutherland
• Rona Train, Hymans
• Laura Myers, LCP (Chair of the Group)
• Mark Baker, Pinsent Masons
• Helen Ball, Sackers
• Charlotte Feld, Travers Smith

The template is available here: https://www.plsa.co.uk/Policy-and-Research-Document-library-DC-Chairs-Statement-Drafting-Template

David Fairs, TPR Executive Director of Regulatory Policy, Analysis and Advice, said: “A chair’s statement is a basic requirement of good pensions governance and should be written clearly enough for members to understand and so I welcome any assistance provided to the trustees such as the PLSA’s drafting template.

The template doesn’t remove the need for trustees to carry out the fundamental analysis forming the foundation for a chair’s statement or consider how the statement requirements apply in the case of their scheme, but it should help in collating the information needed and help to present this clearly to savers.”

Laura Myers, Chair of the PLSA’s DC Committee, Chair of the DC Governance Group and head of DC at LCP, said: “This has long been a concern for trustees and that’s why I am delighted to have contributed to this template statement. It will hopefully provide a useful starting point and guide for trustees to help simplify the production time and cost on documenting their governance so they can instead focus these costs on the areas that will make tangible improvements to members outcomes.”

Anna Copestake, Partner at Arc Pensions Law and founding member of the DC Governance Group commented:

“I am delighted to have contributed to this template statement. It’s an important step in the right direction. DC Chair’s statements eat up a depressing amount of trustee time and budget. Hopefully the template will make the process less costly all round. It provides a useful checklist for gathering the information to be reported as well as a framework for presenting it. It would be wonderful if it enabled trustees to redirect resources to furthering member outcomes. You can’t escape the fact that it would need tailoring, but as one supermarket once said, ‘every little helps’.”

News of Arc’s involvement was published in Professional Pensions and Pensions Expert.