Trustee Training

There is now a formal requirement for trustees to have sufficient knowledge and understanding to fulfil their duties effectively. This is commonly referred to as TKU – for Trustee Knowledge and Understanding.

The good news is that you are not expected to become an expert in every last detail of pensions legislation. However, you are expected to have a working knowledge of pensions and trust law and of the principles surrounding investment and funding.

In addition you should be familiar with the documents that underpin the running of your scheme, including:

• the Trust Deed and  Rules
• the scheme booklet and announcements to members
• minutes of previous trustees’ meetings
• the Statement of Investment Principles
• (if appropriate) the Statement of Funding Principles.

Many organisations, including the Pensions Regulator, offer trustee training courses and several of those (again including the tPR) lead to a recognised qualification for trustees. While such a qualification is valuable evidence that the training has been assimilated it should not be relied upon as fulfilling your TKU requirement for ever after.  It will be important to keep up-to-date with changes in legislation and in your own scheme.

We offer a TKU planning service, involving:

• an audit of the trustees’ learning to date
• an analysis of your current training requirements
• a plan of how and when the required training should be undertaken
• a training manual in which to record your training and achievements, file your papers and refer to the syllabus
• a TKU statement that may be included in the annual report and accounts and used to communicate to members and other interested parties how you are fulfilling the TKU requirement.

We believe that this service will enable you to identify your training needs and so acquire relevant training more efficiently and economically, as well as providing you with a structure for planning your training in the future.  It also provides written evidence of your commitment to fulfil responsibly your role as a trustee.

We encourage a modular approach to trustee training, with training sessions taking place before or after trustee meetings. This has the benefit of enabling training to be tailored to the individual client’s needs and to be scheduled at the most relevant times. For instance, a training session on funding would be scheduled to precede the triennial actuarial valuation.