No trustees in place - looking to cash in pension.

U

UniqueNewYork

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I have been advised that I cannot access my pension funds due to the requirement of the payment needing to be signed off by the Trustees of the Pension Scheme. Apparently the previous trustees stepped back some time ago, and no new trustees have been appointed.

Is there anything I can do about this, as it just seems very lax that this can be allowed to happen and through no fault of my own, I cannot access my pension fund?

Have been advised that the employer has been written to regarding the issue, but apparently there is no time-frame for them to appoint new trustees so I am left in a position where I just have to wait until they do?
 
I have never heard of trustees being removed from a scheme and no one replacing them...probably because it is a legal requirement for there to be a trustee of the scheme.

Under IORPS II, there are enhanced trustee requirements so your pension could move to a master trust structure.
 
I contacted the Pensions Authority who initially advised me that they could not advise me as it was not their role to do so, I enquired from the Ombudsman about making a complaint and they said that they could only act on a complaint after I submitted a complaint (and could not advise if I had a genuine complaint as they would need to be impartial!!), but they advised me that I should contact the Pensions Authority, so I got back in contact with them (advising that the Ombudsman had suggested that I contact them!), and they suggested that they could make contact with the person I was dealing with in the company that was acting as the pension advisor ( I had not been having any luck even getting any sort of response from them, but when I notified them that I was looking to make a formal complaint (with a view to eventually being in a position to make a complaint to the ombudsmans office if need be), I was put in touch with a contact in the pension providers office and they told me that it is up to the employer to appoint a trustee (to replace the previous trustee) but it appears that the employer may have just not done anything about replacing the trustee and apparently there is no time limit on them to do so either, so I may just have to wait until they decide to do so.

Seems a bit odd, that with all the regulations and authorities/bodies in place that such a situation can be allowed to arise and even odder that there seems to be no onus on anyone to ensure that it should not arise in the first place, or that the employer can basically leave the scheme without a trustee in place for as long as they like, and in the meantime I just have to sit and wait for them to sort it out in order to access my own money??!
 
This is very frustrating for you.
In your position, I would put my complaint in writing to the company and if you get no response, make a complaint to the ombusman.
The ombusman said that they can only act when you put in a formal complaint, so you should work towards that, to try to force the situation.
 
Steven Barrett said:
I have never heard of trustees being removed from a scheme and no one replacing them...probably because it is a legal requirement for there to be a trustee of the scheme.

Under IORPS II, there are enhanced trustee requirements so your pension could move to a master trust structure.
Click to expand...

If it is a legal requirement, who would be responsible for enforcing it? According to the pension provider the employer is not under any time scale to replace the trustee, so it appeared to me that they can just leave the scheme without a trustee until they feel like getting around to finding new trustees?
huskerdu said:
This is very frustrating for you.
In your position, I would put my complaint in writing to the company and if you get no response, make a complaint to the ombusman.
The ombusman said that they can only act when you put in a formal complaint, so you should work towards that, to try to force the situation.
Click to expand...
Yes, but by the time I make a complaint, allow the company time to address the complaint and possibly sort the issue, or then get a letter from them if it is not resolved (to raise a complaint with the ombudsman), it could be several months and I still have to wait until new trustees are appointed and wait for them to sign off on my payment.

Just seems ridiculous that the situation is allowed arise in the first place, as the previous trustees had to give notice to the company that they were 'stepping down'. So the company appear to have been well aware of the situation for many months and basically did nothing about it, and it seems that there is no requirement for them to do so in any case as they can just leave the scheme without a trustee and not even inform the members of the scheme that the trustees had stepped down.
 
If there is no trustee the revenue approval of the scheme could be at risk. You should try and get it to a prb asap.

Can you or the pension provider be appointed a trustee of the scheme to complete the transfer?

There has to be good reason to resign as trustee. Were you not informed of this change? Usually this would be accompanied with a solution.
 
This, perhaps, highlights a key benefit of personally held pension vehicles such as PRSAs, Personal Retirement Bond/Buy-out Bonds, Personal Pension Plans etc. which are completely in the hands of the policyholder with no dependency on third parties such as trustees.
 
Oisin19 said:
If there is no trustee the revenue approval of the scheme could be at risk. You should try and get it to a prb asap.

Can you or the pension provider be appointed a trustee of the scheme to complete the transfer?

There has to be good reason to resign as trustee. Were you not informed of this change? Usually this would be accompanied with a solution.
Click to expand...
Am told that I just have to wait until the new trustees are appointed and in place, apparently the employer was advised that the trustees were stepping down last September, but it appears as though nobody did anything about it since then. Seems a bit ridiculous that the employer can just decide to do nothing about it, and both the pension providers and the pension advisors who were also informed of the trustees stepping down also did nothing to follow up on new trustees being appointed.

And there is no 'time limit' or urgency put on the matter so the employer can just take as long as they please to put trustees in place and because of this, I cannot access what is mostly my own money!!

Something wrong somewhere when this can be allowed happen even with all the people and bodies who are meant to be ensuring things are run properly.

No, I was not informed that the trustees were stepping down, I enquired about whether members of the scheme should have been informed of the trustess stepping down, and was basically told it would be included in the annual report for the scheme, which can be completed up to 9 months after the schemes 'year end', So that could basically be another year after the trustees stepped down before the information would be included in the shcemes report.
 
Ask for the rules of the scheme? It could be that the employer is now the trustee. The rules of the scheme will outline what happens when the trustee resigns
 
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