Is AAF fit for today? What should Trustees be considering?
Is AAF fit for today? What should Trustees be considering? AAF 01/20 reports began appearing
Delivering Cyber Attack Protection for our Sole Trustee Appointments
Cyber Attack. The dread of every sector and unfortunately, a real risk that we all face today. For pension trustees, there is also the need to comply with regulations and directions from the Pensions Regulator (TPR), regardless of the size of scheme.
At Pi Partnership, we act as sole trustee for a myriad of small to medium size schemes, so taking an efficient approach to cyber and GDPR that was effective and consistent across all schemes was essential. It was also important that we ensured all our relevant internal policies and practices – developed over many years as part of our own risk management controls – dove-tailed into our scheme policies.
A project not for the faint-hearted – but a real opportunity to think through how Pi could provide our smaller scheme trustee appointments with compliance and value to meet the current requirements and create a blueprint for the future.
Our Approach To Cyber Security
To launch our new approach, we worked with our chosen advisers, Osborne Clarke, who helped us develop central policies which we could apply to all our sole trustee schemes. With their support, we have created a suite of documents which we can update centrally and review at regular intervals. Our trustees can define the variables in a separate document which they can review annually to ensure details are kept up to date.
Our approach has been well received by our trustees and clients alike. Our clients have benefited from a distinctly lower fee than would have applied had we sought to put in place policies that met the requirements in a meaningful way at an individual scheme level.
GDPR and cyber risks have been on the agenda for some time, and there isn’t any chance of it being removed from any Risk Register in the future. All our sole trustee schemes are now armed to deal with the pitfalls of the age of technology in which we now live, and our trustee and management teams have a single process to follow in the event of a cyber-attack, regardless of which unfortunate scheme may be impacted.
We understand as a growing organisation that whilst it is important to acknowledge individuality at all levels, we believe that this portfolio approach is something we can build on to deliver efficiencies within a robust governance framework.
Watch this space as we continue to deliver a sole trustee proposition that harnesses the best of our trustee experience and our independent governance expertise.
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