Real Estate Sector Pensions Update

This Law-Now has been produced in conjunction with the Pensions department to offer insight into several topical issues of relevance to the Real Estate sector.

Pension Fund Trustees Gamble on Property

Three men have recently been banned for life from acting as trustees after they liquidated their pension scheme's assets, borrowed over £20 million, and gambled 87% of the combined total on speculative property investments. The Pensions Regulator imposed the ban after it was discovered that the scheme had at one point held assets of only £800,361 whilst having liabilities of £43 million. The scheme's 450 members are expected to recover a large proportion, but not all, of their benefits from the pension industry's compensation scheme, the Pension Protection Fund.