PAN Governance has been appointed independent trustee of the Deloitte Pensions Master Plan - a master trust arrangement consolidating defined benefit schemes into a single trust.

Schemes that enter the Deloitte Pensions Master Plan retail their existing board of trustees, including any independent trustees.

The key elements of existing schemes also remain unchanged – including member benefits, the trustee board, employers' responsibilities, and the schemes' investments.

The oversight from PAN will ensure the Plan as a whole will benefit from improved governance.

Mark McClintock, Deloitte pensions services partner, said: "PAN is an award winning independent trustee firm and widely admired across the industry."

"Their involvement helps to highlight the attractiveness of our Master Plan offering and the quality of governance to which member schemes will have access."

The initiative has been funded by Deloitte's Innovation Council, an internal board the company says was established in 2013 to support "smart idea development" and to provide investment in innovative and unique programmes.

The funding covered legal advice costs, talent expansion, and an upgrade of Deloitte's existing software infrastructure to service an expanded client base.

Mike Roberts, principal of PAN Governance, said: "The Deloitte Pensions Master Plan is an exciting innovation, in that it addresses the very real issue of small and medium sized pension schemes trying to achieve the efficiencies and economies of scale which have historically only been available to their larger counterparts.

"We are pleased to be associated with an offering which addresses this issue, whilst allowing individual schemes to retain control over decisions relating to their own trustee board, investment strategy and funding policy."

The announcement follows the recent launch of the Deloitte Pensions Master Plan, and comes as a result of an extensive competitive assessment process.

First published 08.10.2015

Lindsay.sharman@wilmingtonplc.com