Pensions

Bexley Beaumont: An award-winning boutique law firm with an inclusive and collaborative team culture and an uncompromising approach to quality aligning the interests of both clients and lawyers. Senior experienced lawyers with a wealth of commercial acumen acting as trusted advisors providing legal solutions across all commercial disciplines.

The law surrounding pension arrangements is broad and complex. Legislative changes are commonplace (indeed a major new pensions Act has been enacted in 2021) Such changes are often followed by new guidance and requirements from the regulators. Our highly experienced pensions team is adept at cutting through the detail and jargon to provide clients with clear and practical support and advice, tailored to their specific needs.

Our approachable pensions team provides a full range of services in relation to all types of pensions arrangements (covering occupational and personal plans, smaller sized funds to much larger ones and various benefit designs including final salary, CARE, defined contribution and hybrid plans).

Whether our clients are pension plan sponsoring employers or trustees, operating in the private, public or charitable sectors, we work with them all with the same enthusiasm. We also provide pensions input to the projects of other professional firms.

Some of our clients ask for our regular involvement in their pensions issues (including our attendance at trustee meetings), whilst others prefer to instruct us in relation to specific projects. We understand this and are happy to build relationships that best suit our clients’ organisational cultures, requirements and budgets. We know it is also important to form good working relationships with clients’ other professional pensions advisers (such as actuaries and administrators), to ensure a seamless service is provided, rather than risking duplication of work and costs.

As a client of the pensions team at Bexley Beaumont you will only work alongside senior experienced lawyers and at a comparatively lower cost due to our efficient business model. Clients also benefit from our commercial acumen and our strategic and pragmatic approach. Our pricing structure and values are attractive to those involved with pensions at SMEs, charitable entities, public bodies and larger corporates.

Some areas we are commonly asked to advise on include:

General pension plan governance and advice on compliance with relevant legislation, case law and regulators’ guidance
Interpreting the provisions of existing pension plan documentation and drafting or reviewing new definitive documentation (together with smaller documents such as deeds of amendment and deeds of appointment and removal of trustees), policies and member communications
Wind-ups of both defined contribution and defined benefit schemes and consolidation exercises
The design or review of various employer funding proposals and liability management exercises
Exit debt liability and statutory methods for dealing with these
Larger projects such as pension scheme mergers, scheme closures and buy-in and buy-out exercises
Disputes at all stages including those under the jurisdiction of Internal Disputes Resolution Procedures, the Pensions Ombudsman and the courts
Pensions issues arising in a HR context, such as in relation to auto-enrolment compliance and settlement agreements
Pensions aspects of corporate sales and acquisitions
Provision of trustee training