Pensions
Our leading pensions practice advises corporate sponsors, trustees and insurers on the full range of pension issues including valuation negotiations and funding solutions, investment issues, dealing with the Pensions Regulator, benefit changes, disputes, plan restructurings, equalisation and other historic issues, de-risking, surplus management and plan closure.
We act in relation to a wide variety of pension schemes from some of the largest in the UK to much smaller, legacy schemes. We also have significant expertise advising in relation to industry-wide plans (Railways, Electricity, Water), and schemes with unionised workforces.
In addition, as well as business as usual work, we work on complex and groundbreaking projects, helping to drive innovation in the industry. An example of this is our work with Royal Mail in developing its new collective money purchase plan and the required legislation.
A key differentiator of our practice is that our lawyers are multi-specialists, working across what would be traditional dividing lines in other firms. This makes for pensions lawyers who can join the dots, see the wider picture, and think laterally. We also work in genuinely partner-led teams.
Our work with clients on complex and innovative pensions projects is facilitated by our cross disciplinary approach, working in integrated teams with specialist colleagues from across the firm. For example, our cross practice Pensions Derisking Group is at the forefront of derisking developments, including buy-ins and buy-outs, where we have advised on 4 out of the 10 biggest transactions in the UK, longevity swaps and reinsurance and innovative derisking and funding structures.
Our Pensions Disputes team brings together leading pensions and litigation practitioners to provide our clients with unrivalled expertise and experience in the relation to some of the largest and most significant cases in the contentious pensions sphere. In 2024, we appeared in two of the six pensions cases heard by the Court of Appeal, including successfully advising the Trustee of the BBC Pension Scheme on a Part 8 claim brought by the BBC to determine the ability to make changes to future service benefits under Scheme provisions.
Key experience
Advising Railways Pension Trustee Company, the trustee of the industry-wide Railways Pension Scheme, on the whole range of trustee matters, including liability transfers on franchise changes, valuation issues and dispute resolution including in successful High Court litigation in RPTCL v Atos (2022) and at the Court of Appeal in (2024), where the High Court reasoning was unanimously upheld.
Advised Royal Mail on the UK’s first collective defined contribution (CDC) plan, the Royal Mail Collective Pension Plan, which launched on 7 October 2024. New legislation was needed to ensure that by providing a pension from its own resources the Plan was not classed as a defined benefit scheme. We therefore worked closely with the DWP, HMRC and the Pensions Regulator to design the UK legislative regime for CDC schemes.
Advised Legal & General on its £4.8 billion full buy-in with the Boots Pension Scheme. The buy-in secured the benefits of all 53,000 retirees and deferred members of the Scheme, making it the UK’s largest single transaction of its kind by premium size and, for Legal & General, the largest single transaction by number of members.
Advised Intact Financial Corporation and RSA Group on the buy-in concluded between Pension Insurance Corporation plc, a specialist insurer of defined benefit pension schemes, and the Trustees of two schemes sponsored by RSA Group, the Sal Pension Scheme and the Royal Insurance Group Pension Scheme. This is the largest ever bulk annuity transaction from pension schemes to insurer, covering 40,000 members and c.£6.5 billion of liabilities.
Our experience in advising corporate sponsors, trustees and insurers on all types of pensions matters means we appreciate each party’s objectives and are sensitive to the responses of different stakeholders. This enables us to anticipate issues, manage legal and reputational risk and find workable solutions, being innovative where appropriate, resulting in practical, commercially aware advice. We aim to see matters from our client’s perspective at all times.
key Contacts
We chose Slaughter and May to work with us on our most challenging and complex matters precisely because we find they excel in this type of work. Chambers UK