query on company pension and company goes bust or is sold

C

concerned

Guest
Hi
Lets say you have a company pension. Lets say its a defined contribution scheme. Lets say the company are the trustees of the scheme.

What happens if the company goes into recievership or goes bust?

I presume the receiver becomes the trustee.
Would there be a problem getting your pension fund released for retirement or transferring it to a buy out bond?

What happens if the company is sold? I presume the new owners become trustees?
 
Re: query on company pension and company goes bust or is sol

Lets say the company are the trustees of the scheme.
AFAIK, it is the individuals (who may be appointed by the company) not the company itself who are the trustees of the scheme.
 
query on company pension and company goes bust or is sol

Ok,
Lets says a director in the company is the trustee of the scheme. What happens if the company he owns goes bust , closes down or is sold.
Any idea what happens?

Lets say this trustee is knocked down and killed by a bus.
What happens then?
 
Re: query on company pension and company goes bust or is so

There would always be more than 1 trustee AFAIK, so in the bus scenario, the other trustees would step in & eventually appoint another trustee.

In the bust/closedown scenario, I just dont know. Have you checked out the Pensions Board site?
 
Trustees, etc

The company (as a corporate entity) may be the sole trustee or there may be individual trustees or both. If the company is the only trustee and it goes bust, then the liquidator becomes the trustee. If all the individual trustees die or disappear, then the trust deed of the scheme will set out who has the right to appoint new trustees. At the end of the day, afaik the Pensions Board can apply to the courts to appoint new trustees if no one else will.

In any case, irrespective of who the trustees are, the assets of the scheme are separate from those of the employer. If the employer does under, the money in the scheme is still there and cannot be got at by the creditors. In this situation as in every other, the trustees have a legal obligation to use the assets of the scheme to provide the benefits set out in the scheme rules: even if the liquidator is the trustee, he cannot refuse to pay benefits or hold out for some share of the assets.

By the way, I am not a lawyer.

d
 
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