Pensions

• Cases
• Publications
• Articles

Maitland has specialists whose expertise includes advising, drafting and contentious work in relation to all aspects of occupational pension schemes, personal pension schemes and other insured arrangements.

Our work extends to the pensions aspects of corporate transactions, including warranty claims and advice in the context of the merger and de-merger of company schemes.

We also act in cases in which insolvency or professional negligence issues have arisen, including in relation to actuaries' negligence, and in cases in which serious wrong-doing is alleged against pension trustees.

In addition to instructions from law firms, we are also instructed directly by professional trustees, actuaries and insurance companies.

Our work in this area includes:

• Edge v The Pensions Ombudsman - the leading case on whether and in what circumstances the Ombudsman, or the courts, should interfere with the decisions of pension trustees
• Barclays Bank v Holmes - a case concerning cross-subsidy between the final salary and money purchase sections of a substantial company pension scheme
• Equitable Life v Ernst & Young, Bowley & Ors - professional negligence claims against (among others) the former Appointed Actual of Equiatble Life, together with related disciplinary proceedings before the Institute of Actuaries
• acting in related claims arising out of a number of substantial “pension liberation schemes”
• acting in a claim arising out of the defective execution of a number of pension scheme deeds and rules
• acting in a dispute between a vendor and purchaser under a sale and purchase agreement as to who should be liable for Beckmann pension liabilities on a TUPE transfer
• acting on an application by HMRC and the FSA to wind-up the administrator of a substantial pension provider in a case concerning serious investor-protection issues
• acting in a claim before the Pensions Ombudsman involving allegations of fraudulent breach of trust in the administration of a pension scheme
• advising on a claim by pension scheme trustees against a fund manager arising out of investments in a number of PFI funds
• advising as to the recoverability of a section 75 debt on a corporate restructuring
• advising on the steps to be taken to achieve Pension Protection Fund entry
• advising on an application to the Pensions Regulator for clearance in the context of the sale of a substantial private company
• substantial commercial arbitrations arising out of the government-sponsored mis-selling review

Maitland is ranked in Pensions in The Legal 500 (2011).