Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Association of Member Nominated Trustees

Recently I joined the "Association of Member Nominated Trustees".  The AMNT was only launched last year and has already 150 members who serve as trustees or representatives on pension funds with over £50 billion of assets. 

On Wikipedia the AMNT is described as being "composed of pension trustees selected by employees or members of private and public sector pension funds in the United Kingdom. It a non-profit group which seeks to organise employee representatives through sharing information, expertise and coordinating policies for pensions and corporations in which money is invested".

I went to its AGM in March and was very impressed.  In particular I went to a work group on Defined Benefit pension schemes and was pleased to be in a room full of people who were genuinely positive and supportive about DB. I was also the only person from a public sector scheme.  At the meeting it was decided to form a working group defending and promoting DB pensions schemes which I will Chair.

I have always thought that despite the good work of the TUC Pension Trustee network and LAPFF there needs to be some form of national forum for all member nominated trustees and representatives. Our schemes are all different but we all have particular pressures and problems common to all. The founding joint Chairs are Janice Turner, Member Nominated Trustee of the BECTU Staff Retirement Scheme and Barry Parr, Member Nominated Director of the Orange Pension Scheme.

If you are interested in getting more information or becoming a member check out its temporary website here.   The next open meeting will be on 7 July in London.

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