A Titanic Pensions Story 1 of 4

The Titanic hit an iceberg, but what sank it?

The final event which sank the Titanic was hitting the iceberg, but there were a series of other factors which led to that final event and the tragic outcome we all know about.

It is these other factors we will be considering and you may be surprised how a ship sinking in 1912 is relevant to current thinking on running a pension scheme.

In coming issues we will share with you our views about the Titanic on the significance or otherwise of:

• Cost savings that compromised quality
• Quality that compromised security
• Security that compromised foresight
• Foresight that was not given the right priority
• Priorities that met regulation, but failed moral tests.

These are all real factors that led to the tragedy of the Titanic and, when articulated in the above terms, we are sure you can see the relevance to pension schemes.  It is also important to recognise that a disaster such as the Titanic does result in regulatory changes.  As the Pensions Bill progresses, the responses to the Pensions Regulator’s consultation on “21^st Century Trusteeship and Governance” and the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s views following BHS are now published the full implications of 2016 which saw a heightened focus on both defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes will become known.  There is little doubt there will be challenges for trustees to enhance governance frameworks and provide transparency on the effectiveness of their governance frameworks.

It is, therefore, a good time to consider key aspects of governance and to give life to the matter we will use the facts of the Titanic to illustrate the principles of good governance which we are sure you will recognise.

As well as publishing articles in our newsletter, we can either run workshops with you on an individual basis or perform some remote analytics which, whilst requiring only a small investment of your time, can provide valuable information for your consideration.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog, I look forward to publishing part 2 of 4.