This update contains summaries of two recent practical court decisions which provide confirmation that trust law in Ireland relating to trustee decision making, related responsibilities and potential liability for breach of trust is consistent with previous expectations. These decisions while welcome do not change the position as it was previously understood. As such they provide a significant degree of comfort that provided that trustees act in good faith, having taken appropriate professional advice, the Courts are very unlikely to interfere with their decisions.

To the extent that there is anything novel in the two decisions, the most significant confirmation is that, as a general principle, it is appropriate for trustees to take into account arrangements being made outside the scheme for active members.

We also provide an update on further EU regulation, the European Market Infrastructure Regulations (EMIR), which affects schemes using derivatives (including those which use them solely for hedging through their custodian). These regulations require pension scheme trustees to organise reporting of the entering into and closing out of derivative transactions in a relatively short timeframe. In most cases this will be dealt with by the custodians (who have reporting obligations) but we are aware that there are some onerous reporting agreements being proposed to trustees which have inappropriate indemnities in them.

Read the full Pensions Update article via Pensions Update – Spring 2014 – Employment and HR – Ireland.