The Isle of Man has conducted a consultation process on independent trustees for domestic pension schemes.
The UK dependency issued a consultative document which sets out proposals for regulations on the appointment of independent trustees.
The process builds on the island’s Retirement Benefits Schemes Act of 2000 (feature page 62).
The legislation introduced the qualifying requirement for registration of occupational schemes as ‘authorised schemes’ that they must have a trustee that is independent of the employer of the member.
The new document outlines the independent trustee requirement and includes a set of draft regulations, dubbed “The Retirement Benefits Schemes (Independent and Nominated Trustee) Regulations 2004”.
“These draft regulations provide a statutory definition of independent and extend this to include certain member trustees who satisfy nomination and appointment requirements,” the island’s Insurance and Pensions Authority said in a statement.
The Isle of Man has recently passed legislation – the Retirement Benefits Schemes Act and International Retirement Benefits Schemes Regulations – which it says provides “added security for multi-national or global businesses wishing to establish retirement benefits schemes in the Island to provide benefits for their global workforces”.
It adds that the legislation has introduced fixed prudential rules which oversee the management of schemes - while companies or their advisers “are afforded a large degree of flexibility to tailor scheme rules in line with varying corporate or market objectives”.

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