Arc Pensions Law

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Rosalind Connor

Rosalind Connor

Rosalind has spent more than two decades advising employers, trustees, administrators and members in relation to the establishment, management and winding up of pension schemes. She has a particular expertise in dealing with distressed situations, and was involved in the first apportionment carried out for PPF purposes in a distressed business restructuring. She has advised on many subsequent restructuring and insolvency situations, and co-authored the book, Pensions and Corporate Insolvency: a Practitioner’s Guide (Jordans).  Rosalind also has significant experience in dealing with pensions on transactions, advising trustees, employers, investors and funders on a range of UK and multi-national sales and acquisitions. She deals with a wide range of issues, from multi-national pension schedules to Regulator clearance. Her other areas of expertise include tax planning and structuring relating to pensions, and she is the pensions contributor to Revenue Law: Principles and Practice (Bloomsbury).
Anna Copestake

Anna Copestake

Anna is a Partner at Arc Pensions Law and advises sponsors and trustees on all aspects of DB and DC arrangements, including governance, funding, benefit redesign, liability management exercises and scheme closures. She has extensive experience of negotiating commercial documentation, including third party administrator agreements. In addition to advising DB arrangements, she has expertise in relation to DC arrangements and master trusts. Her work includes advising on investment options and without consent switches, asset security and value for money assessments, and regulatory compliance including charge cap and chair’s statement compliance. She advises schemes on dealings with the Pensions Regulator on all matters. In the field of master trusts, Anna has experience of setting up new DC master trusts and helping schemes through the authorisation process. She has worked both with master trusts exiting the market under the new legislation, and DC occupational schemes thinking about winding-up and transferring members into an ongoing master trust. She is a member of the DC Governance Group, that drafted the PLSA's 2020 template DC Chair's statement.Her experience also extends to investment matters, including pooled funds, custody agreements, investment management agreements, and investment platform provider policies. Anna sat on the 2019 PLSA’s ESG and Stewardship Taskforce that created a practical ESG guide for trustees. She is a member of the PLSA's Voting and Implementation Statement Working Group, that has written an industry best practice guide to the new 2020 investment disclosure requirements.Anna is a founding member of the Security of DC Assets Working Party, whose guide on asset security is supported by The Pensions Regulator, and a co-founder of NextGen, a new industry body established to promote and encourage the next generation of pension professionals. Anna was recognised as ‘Lawyer of the Year’, at the Professional Pensions Women in Pensions Awards 2019 and was shortlisted again for this award in 2020.
Jane Kola

Jane Kola

After working in pensions law for over 25 years, Jane has developed an expertise in advising trustees and employers on workplace pension arrangements, offering guidance on the establishment, management, restructuring, merging and winding-up of defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid schemes. Jane is a specialist in advising pension schemes on the legal aspects of their investments. For defined benefit schemes, she advises on the terms of investment management agreements, fiduciary management and investment funds of all kinds, as well as hedging strategies (working in conjunction with banking lawyers) and custody arrangements. For defined contribution schemes, Jane advises on the investment platform documentation, investment funds, insurance funds and the security of assets. She is a former member of the DC Asset Security Working party, whose guide on asset security is recommended by the Pensions Regulator. In the last few years, Jane has helped clients on the journey to buy-out. She has undertaken benefit audits to ensure schemes are paying the correct legal entitlements. She advises on benefit re-shaping, liability management and incentive exercises which enhance the insurability of schemes and their benefits in a cost efficient way. In 2015, Jane led the team which concluded one of the largest pension scheme buy-outs in UK history. This was the culmination of more than 5 years’ work and involved multiple buy-in policies with more than one bulk annuity insurer.  Jane has acted on many other transactions since including working with partner Anna Rogers on the Littlewoods Pension Scheme £850 million buy-in with Scottish Widows in 2018.
Vikki Massarano

Vikki Massarano

Vikki has specialised in pensions law for more than 25 years and advises trustees and employers in relation to all aspects of pensions law. She is particularly experienced in the pensions aspects of corporate activity, including sales, acquisitions and refinancings as well as having advised on numerous distress and restructuring cases, negotiating with the Pension Protection Fund and the Pensions Regulator. She has advised on a number of asset backed funding arrangements. She also advises on many DC issues, in particular specialising in member communication and education as well as having expertise on scheme administration issues. Vikki is experienced in reviewing and updating scheme documentation, advising on trustee duties and governance issues and advising both trustees and employers in relation to liability management exercises.
Kate Payne

Kate Payne

Kate has many years of experience advising trustees and employers in relation to all aspects of pensions law. She has advised them on scheme mergers and benefit changes including closure to new entrants and to further accrual. Kate has also been involved in a number of liability management exercises to help schemes look more attractive to insurers as well as offering members opportunities to reshape their benefits. She has also been involved in projects to transfer DC benefits from hybrid schemes to master trusts and more recently Kate has also advised trustees on asset backed funding agreements, LDI investment and benefit specification projects associated with buy-ins and buy-outs. Kate has also worked on multi-jurisdictional corporate transactions and restructurings including for distressed companies. She has also supported central government on significant outsourcing projects including one that resulted in the first private sector provider participating in the Civil Service Pension Scheme, as well as contractors participating in public sector schemes and the Railways Pension Scheme.
Alex Rodger

Alex Rodger

Alex advises trustees and employers in the public, private and third sectors on all pension scheme matters.He has over 25 years of experience advising on corporate sales and reorganisations, TUPE transfers and the associated issues such as Beckmann, s.75 debts and the Regulator’s powers.Alex also has particular expertise in relation to scheme mergers, member complaints, administration errors and buy-outs and buy-ins.He has broad experience of advising on public sector schemes, such as the LGPS, PCSPS and NHSPS, particularly in relation to admission agreements and outsourcing arrangements. Alex has also advised employers in the rail and electricity industries in relation to the ESPS and RPS both generally and specifically relating to “protected persons”.
Anna Rogers

Anna Rogers

Anna advises clients who operate or sponsor occupational pension schemes, with a particular expertise in defined benefit schemes. Her current focus is on various stages of the DB journey to ultimate winding-up, involving both assets and liabilities. This encompasses benefit specifications and scheme documentation exercises, holistic reality checks on benefit structure to ensure a sound foundation for future administration, and liability management of all kinds with or without member consent (including GMP conversion). She has long experience with bulk purchase annuity transactions, remedial action on a ‘self-help’ basis, winding up and trustee protection. On the asset side, she has dealt with many funding and security negotiations, including contingent assets and funding agreements, and dealing with surplus. Anna advises a number of DB schemes from very large to very small on these issues, as well as ongoing compliance, governance, risk management and strategic planning. Anna has helped clients work through all the significant pensions legal and regulatory developments as they have unfolded over time. Anna also has experience with many scheme mergers, demergers, and the pensions aspects of corporate transactions at UK and international levels.
Anne-Marie Winton

Anne-Marie Winton

Anne-Marie has many years of experience as a pensions adviser, dealing with day to day issues for trustees and employers of all sizes of occupational schemes. She also specialises in advising UK and non-UK employers and groups facing challenging situations.  Recent work includes advising on how to respond to the threat of a Financial Support Direction from the Pensions Regulator, and managing covenant and funding negotiations in distressed environments (working closely with employer covenant advisers). She has also successfully guided a client through the process of getting Pensions Regulator and PPF approval to a regulated apportionment arrangement.Throughout her career, Anne-Marie has also worked with other law firms in jointly advising UK and overseas clients on the pensions-aspects of corporate transactions, including project managing multi-disciplinary teams. She has assisted in building new client relationships and cementing existing client relationships by working in partnership with the primary legal advisers. She has also on several occasions been appointed as an additional legal adviser for trustees in special situations such as a distressed sale, restructuring or proposed pre-packaged administration.