The
Webinar series
7th May - 8th May - 21st May
This three-part series will take you all the way through the buy-in journey. We will start with the preparation required in advance, through to selecting an insurer and transacting with them, then go beyond this initial transaction with data cleanse work, progression to buy-out, and ultimately wind-up of a pension scheme.
The journey to buy-in and buy-out
The video provides a high level overview of the buy-in to buy-out and wind-up process in less than 5 minutes. Our webinar series will bring this to life and explain some of the key points in more detail to enable you to have a better understanding of what a buy-out project looks like, as well as highlighting crucial areas for consideration to help you ensure your scheme achieves a successful outcome for members and all stakeholders.
The importance of planning
7 May @ 10:00 – 10:30
Kicking off the trilogy webinar series is Rich Ingham, Helen Ross-Smith and Amanda Chamming’s who will take you through ‘The importance of planning’.
Starting from the point at which the Trustees’ funding target is achieved, the webinar will cover the steps trustees need to take to get their scheme ready to approach the insurance market. Adviser appointments, data preparation and legal groundwork will all be discussed, detailing how these preparatory stages can avoid significant headaches later in the journey.
Rich Ingham, Associate Director - Vidett
Rich is an Associate Director at Vidett with over 10 years’ industry experience. He’s successfully taken multiple clients through their buy-in journeys, both in his previous consultancy role at an employee benefits firm and as a trustee since joining Vidett. As a member of our Endgame Solutions team, he has responsibility for managing relationships with insurers, risk transfer advisers and lawyers.
Helen Ross-Smith, Senior Principal - Mercer
Helen is a qualified actuary and a Senior Principal in Mercer’s Risk Transfer team, with 17 years’ industry experience. She specialises in bulk annuity projects and helping clients throughout their buy-in journeys, from early planning through to the successful completion of a buy-in transaction, the move to buyout and completion of wind up.
Amanda Chamming's, Partner - CMS
Amanda is a Partner in the CMS Pensions Team. She advises a broad range of trustee and employer clients on the day to day running of occupational pension schemes of all sizes. Amanda has a specialist focus on derisking and extensive experience advising both trustees and leading providers on longevity swaps (including conversions), buy-in and buy-out transactions, and moving to wind-up.
How to select an insurer
8 May @ 10:30 – 11:00
This webinar, hosted by Azka Ali, Hannah Brinton and Robert Tellwright will explore the key aspects of the insurer market and the decision-making processes involved in selecting the right insurer for your scheme. We will provide insights into the segmentation of the insurer market and discuss the relative benefits of engaging in exclusivity with insurers versus conducting a competitive process. We will consider how Joint Working Groups can set their key objectives and how these objectives influence the selection process to ensure alignment with the overall goals of the pension scheme. Finally we will focus on the range of factors that trustees consider when selecting an insurer, including financial strength, pricing, and member experience, amongst others.
Azka Ali, Client Director - Vidett
Azka is a Client Director at Vidett and a part of its Endgame Solutions team. She is a Trustee to a range of DB clients and from her current portfolio, she has three schemes now moving from buyin to buyout/wind-up and one approaching the market for insurance quotes. Previous to her Trustee role, Azka served as a corporate and scheme actuary at Mercer UK, where she advised on significant benefit projects for FTSE100 companies in various capacities.
Hannah Brinton, Partner - Aon
Hannah is a Partner in Aon’s UK Risk Settlement Group, advising clients on setting and executing strategies to de-risk their pension schemes and enhance member security. Regulated to advise on bulk annuity and longevity swap transactions. With experience advising on over £40Bn of risk transfer projects ranging from £30M to multi-£Bn.
Robert Tellwright, Partner - Pinsent Masons
Rob is a pensions partner who co-leads Pinsent Masons’ national risk transfer team. He is a seasoned risk transfer negotiator, regularly advising trustees, sponsoring employers and insurers on buy-ins, buy-outs and other endgame solutions of all shapes, sizes and complexity, including a number of landmark deals for major pension funds. His breadth of experience means he is perfectly placed to give a rounded view of the market. Rob is a member of the Association and Pensions Lawyers, and various industry working groups with a focus on risk transfer and endgame planning.
Beyond the initial transaction
21 May @ 9:00 – 9:30
In this webinar James Chalk, Chris Rice and Jonathan Hazlett will be discussing the process of moving from buy-in to buy-out and the eventual wind-up of a pension scheme. We will consider the key steps of the process and build on what trustees and advisors can do before and during the process to ensure that it runs as smoothly as possible, touching upon issues such as project management, member experience and protections for trustees on wind-up.
James Chalk, Client Director - Vidett
James is a Client Director who currently acts as a trustee to around a dozen defined benefit (DB) schemes, at various stages of their endgame journey. Having previously worked in corporate restructuring and as a covenant adviser, he is now a key member of our endgame solutions team and is involved in a large number of risk transfer projects, with schemes ranging from £10m to £150m in assets.
Chris Rice, Head of Trustee Services - Broadstone
Chris is a qualified actuary and risk transfer specialist at Broadstone. He set up Broadstone’s SM&RT Insure proposition which focusses on completing risk transfer transactions for small to medium sized schemes. As a part of this he has completed numerous deals between £1m and £125m including pilot cases working with insurers to develop streamlined solutions for smaller schemes.
Jonathan Hazlett, Head of Pensions - Osborne Clarke
Jonathan has extensive experience of all areas of pensions law and practice but specialises in risk transfer work for pension schemes, in particular, advising employers and trustees on buy-in and buy-out transactions with all of the bulk annuity insurers currently active in the UK market. Jonathan has also developed a specialism in advising in relation to alternative risk transfers to commercial consolidators having recently advised the trustees of the Debenhams Retirement Scheme on the transfer of the scheme’s assets and liabilities to Clara and having advised Clara on the transfer of the assets and liabilities of the Wates Pension Fund to Clara. Jonathan also advises on the law and practice of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) following employer insolvency and corporate restructurings and High Court pensions disputes.
About us
Vidett is the UK’s largest professional trustee and pension governance firm by number of clients. A huge reason for this is our excellent pension scheme governance team, who are shortlisted for the PMI Pinnacle Awards ‘Team of the Year’. Our governance team of over 50 work on a range of pension governance services, from governance consulting and operational support for pensions managers and in-house teams to scheme secretarial and interim resource. As well as our additional services, such as adviser reviews, member communications and trustee board effectiveness reviews.