Maronco Limited Executive Pension Plan

DC Governance Statement

Prepared in accordance with Regulation 23 of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996 (the “Regulations”)

1 Introduction

1.1 Governance requirements apply to defined contribution pension arrangements to help members achieve a good outcome from their pension savings. The Trustee of the Scheme is required to produce a yearly statement (signed by the Chair of Trustee) to describe how these governance requirements have been met.

1.2 The Trustee of the Scheme is Walker Morris Trustees Limited.

1.3 On behalf of the Trustee, I am pleased to present this statement of governance or ‘Chair’s Statement’.

1.4 This statement describes how the Trustee has governed the Scheme during the year to 31 March 2023.  In doing so, it covers various statutory disclosures required by the Occupational Pension Schemes (Charges and Governance) Regulations 2015.

1.5 This statement covers 4 principal areas:

1.5.1 Investment arrangements

1.5.2 Internal controls, with particular focus on the processing of core financial transactions

1.5.3 Value, including charges and transaction costs deducted from members’ funds

1.5.4 The knowledge and resources available to the Trustee, including how the Trustee maintained the statutory levels of knowledge and understanding to govern the Scheme and how these help the Trustee to ensure the Scheme is governed effectively.

1.6 The Scheme is an executive pension arrangement set up by Maronco Limited (now wound-up) for the benefit of the two members of the Scheme, Jurg and Carole Maron (the “Members”).  The two Members are married and they are currently aged over 75.

1.7 Both Members were declared bankrupt in 21 Feb 2000 (Carole) and 6 April 1999 (Jurg) and the assets of the Scheme became fully vested in their trustee in bankruptcy, Andy Nalliah of RSM UK Creditor Solutions LLP, by operation of law as it stood at that time.

1.8 We are in communication with the trustee in bankruptcy to get them to confirm how they want the benefits for and in respect of Jurg and Carole Maron to be dealt with. It is then intended to finalise the winding up of the Scheme.

2 Investment arrangements

2.1 The Scheme is currently invested entirely in cash, which is held by Phoenix Life.

2.2 The Scheme has never been used as a “qualifying scheme” for automatic enrolment purposes.

2.3 The Trustee has therefore not operated a default investment arrangement as required by the auto enrolment legislation.  We have therefore not prepared any further disclosures in this regard.

3 Internal controls and core financial transactions

3.1 In practice, the Trustee delegates responsibility for any transactions to the Scheme’s third party administrators, Phoenix Life.

3.2 The Trustee has received assurance from the Scheme’s administrators that there are adequate internal controls to support prompt and accurate processing of any core financial transactions relating to the Scheme should they arise.

3.3 The Trustee receives regular communications from Phoenix Life concerning the administration of the Scheme.

4 Value, charges and transaction costs

4.1 The Trustee is required to assess the extent to which member borne charges and transaction costs represent good value for members, and to set out the ongoing charges borne by members of the Scheme in this statement. This includes annual fund management charges, any additional fund expenses such as custody costs and any other administration or investment costs met by the members.  The Trustee is also required to separately disclose transaction costs that are borne by the members.

4.2 However, as the Pensions Regulator is aware, this Scheme has been in winding-up since 6 April 2004 and the benefits for and in respect of the Scheme’s members vested in the trustee in bankruptcy before the deadline for publication of this Chair’s Statement.  As such, the Trustee understands that these requirements do not apply.

4.3 During the period covered by this statement, the Scheme was invested entirely in cash held by Phoenix Life.   The annual management charge is 1% of the member’s funds.

4.4 The Trustee is also required to publish in the Chair’s Statement one or more illustrations showing the cumulative impact of costs and charges in future years.  However, the Members are no longer entitled to benefits from the Scheme and the sole beneficiary of the Scheme is the trustee in bankruptcy. For these reasons, the Trustee believes that it would not serve any beneficiary’s interests to prepare or publish any such illustrations.

5 Trustee knowledge and understanding

5.1 The Trustee is an independent professional trustee.  Directors of the Trustee company are senior partners of law firm Walker Morris LLP.  Walker Morris LLP has a wide range of experience, knowledge and skills relating to the operation and governance of pension arrangements in the UK.

5.2 The Trustee considers that the statutory requirement to have knowledge and understanding under the Pensions Act 2004 has been met during the year.