There are two voices among trustees that provide a fascinating contrast. John Hamilton (not a professional but a chair of trustees) is calling for trustees and employers to pay more attention to the implications of decisions on “end game” while Alison Hatcher (a professional trustee is calling for the voice of the trustees to be heard.
What we are seeing is a change in the weight of voice from trustees since the arrival of the pension schemes bill and I think it is the outcome of a Government (both DWP and Treasury) who are looking for pensions to take a lead.
I have worked with both John Hamilton and Alison Hatcher over the past three years and seen how they have moved from peripheral to central to the conversation. The new Aberdeen Stagecoach scheme and Vidett are now instances of change and touchstones for people’s view of professional pensions. Who would have thought that that would be the case in the early years of this decade let alone what came after the Financial Crisis.
It is this new self confidence in themselves that gives trustees a new voice, a voice that has been missed when the voice of pensions was subdued and given outlet mainly through the Pension Regulator and through actuarial consultancies.
The comments that follow John Hamilton’s post and Alison Hatcher’s article confirm this newfound confidence. Monty Hadadi is another voice of this new generation of spokespeople who have been given the space and voice to speak their mind.
I cannot see the Pension Schemes Bill getting properly enacted without these people at the fore. They are the missing voices of the past twenty years , voices that we went into this century with but which we lost in the misery of the collapse of defined benefit in the private sector and the terror of “de-risking” that throttled innovation and growth.
I see what is going on in the House of the Lords this week, the amendment of the Pension Schemes Bill to make it better, to give DB schemes a chance to run as a key part of this and I would add several members of the upper house who are making progress happen.