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Own Risk Assessment (ORA) Services

Independent, practical support for trustee boards

Your ORA should do more than meet a deadline. Done properly, it helps trustee boards step back, test whether governance is working in practice and identify where to improve. It should help set the framework for your ongoing governance with a focus on continuous improvement.

The ORA should be proportionate to your scheme, reflecting its complexities and objectives.

At Pi Partnership, we help trustee boards turn the ORA into a practical, live governance tool rather than a one-off compliance document. As trustees and governance specialists we understand trustee dynamics, adviser relationships, competing priorities and the reality of board decision-making.

Risk Management Cycle & ORA

Own Risk Assessment Services That We Deliver

We deliver an independent view, additional resource and expertise, constructive challenge and a bespoke approach tailored to your scheme. Whether you are working towards your first ORA deadline, refining your ESOG framework and supporting policies, or looking for independent review and challenge, we adapt our support to suit your needs.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution: some schemes need full support, while others need independent review, extra resource or simply a sounding board. We tailor our input accordingly, helping ensure your ORA feeds into action plans, governance calendars and future decision-making, rather than becoming a document that sits on a shelf.

How Can We Help

  1. ORA planning and scoping: getting you started in a clear and proportionate way by identifying what applies to your scheme, scoping the work needed, agreeing roles, responsibilities and timings; mapping the ORA into your governance calendar and deciding what can be built from existing policies and governance materials
  2. Gap analysis: reviewing your current governance framework and supporting documents to identify what is already in place; what needs updating; where policies exist but are not yet embedded in practice. For many schemes, the challenge is drawing together existing governance material into a coherent, evidenced ORA process.
  3. ESOG support: strengthening your effective system of governance by reviewing areas such as governance structure and decision-making; policies and controls; risk management processes; service provider oversight; record keeping and operational resilience and trustee knowledge, skills and effectiveness.
  4. Drafting your ORA: preparation of your first ORA, or inputting into an existing draft, by structuring the assessment clearly; picking up relevant elements of the ESOG through an easy to understand scoring system, using plain English; focusing on material risks and real-life governance effectiveness; linking findings to evidence, controls and practical actions and making sure the document reflects trustee views, as well as advisers.
  5. Independent review and challenge: providing an independent review to challenge the ORA; sense-check whether it reflects how the board actually operates; identify gaps, inconsistencies or areas for improvement to strengthen structure and action planning.
  6. Provide additional resource: Some trustee boards and in-house pension teams know what they need to do, but do not have the time or resource to do it alone. We can act as a flexible sounding board to help you work through difficult areas; prioritise actions; test judgements and wording and keep momentum between meetings.
  7. Making the ORA live: We help you turn the ORA into an ongoing governance tool by connecting it to your annual cycle; action tracking; policy reviews; board effectiveness work; training plans; significant scheme developments and strategic decisions

As the Pension Management Institutes (PMI’s) Governance Insight Partner, we see governance as being at the heart of good pension scheme management.

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Why choose Pi Partnership for Own Risk Assessment services?

When you work with Pi Partnership, you gain practical support from independent pension scheme specialists who understand both the requirements of the General Code and the realities of trustee decision-making. We help trustee boards approach the ORA in a way that is proportionate, pragmatic and focused on improving governance in practice. Our team combines trustee experience, scheme secretarial expertise and governance insight, enabling us to provide constructive challenge, additional resource and clear, practical support at every stage of the process.

We do not believe the ORA should be treated as a standalone compliance exercise. Instead, we help schemes use it to strengthen their effective system of governance, identify meaningful actions and embed improvements into governance calendars, policy reviews, training plans and future board decisions. Whether you need full ORA support, an independent review, help refining your ESOG framework or an experienced sounding board, our approach is tailored to your scheme’s size, complexity and long-term objectives.

Get in touch for Own Risk Assessment support

Preparing for your first ORA, reviewing your governance framework or looking for independent challenge? Contact Pi Partnership today to find out how our tailored ORA services can help your trustee board meet its obligations and turn the assessment into a practical tool for better pension scheme governance.

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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Everyone has different needs, and we support this balance offering true flexibility in how our people manage their time and fully support part time working and a family friendly approach.

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Communication

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Development

Nurturing every Pi Person is important to us and we want to ensure everyone has the opportunity for continued professional development by providing the space to do this alongside client commitments. Everyone has an individual Personal Development Plan catered to them, whether they are on the start of their journey with Pi or those looking at ways to transition into the next stage of their careers.

Everyone has the opportunity for a regular development and progression review and everyone has ownership over their own development with input and guidance of senior member of the team where required.

We provide regular opportunities to share knowledge amongst our teams through Lunch Time Learn in sessions and actively encourage involvement and participation into this.

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Culture

We are an open, friendly and supportive team who thrive in a flexible and autonomous environment. Our people are trusted to get on with things, adding value and individual contribution, whilst maintaining a good work life balance and ideally having fun along the way.

We want to ensure we cultivate our special culture and our focus is to maintain our exceptional engagement levels. We are proud to have been awarded the Sunday Times Best Place to Work for small businesses in 2023 and 2024, and also in 2025 after moving to the medium-sized business category.

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Employee Owned

Our employee ownership structure is central to our philosophy of making sure every Pi Person is part of our success story, contributing to how we run the business, and sharing in the profits. We know that being successful is not just down to numbers, it’s about our people who all contribute in their unique way to our success and creating a working environment where everyone has a voice.

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2nd Floor Tuition House, 27-37 St. George’s Road, Wimbledon, London, SW19 4EU

Email Us

enquiries@pipg.co.uk

Call Us

020 8879 6500

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our team

Amanda Burden

Director and Governance Specialist

Amanda is a Board Director of Pi Partnership Group and leads the development of Pi’s services. She works closely with clients, the Pi team and professional advisers to ensure all of Pi’s services meet the changing needs of the pension market and deliver clear value to Pi’s clients.

Amanda has over twenty-five years’ experience in the pensions industry and, as well as ensuring Pi’s services continue to meet the needs of our clients in a rapidly changing pension landscape, is also a member of Pi’s Executive Management Team. She provides specialist project management for clients on a range of services, including adviser selection and review, trustee board assessment and governance design.

As well as being a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) and Chair of the PMI London Group, Amanda holds PMI certificates in Pensions Automatic Enrolment and DC Governance, was a past Prince2 practitioner and is a Certified Risk Management Practitioner.

What do you most enjoy about your role:  Successfully delivering complex projects and creating a happy team environment.

Interests outside work: Travel, theatre and as part of Abundance London helping create beautiful spaces in urban settings.

Top achievement to date: Competing in the 2005/06 Round the World Clipper race.