PS Independent Trustees Limited announces the launch of Internal Controls Review

16 February 2006, PS Independent Trustees Limited (“PSITL”), an independent Professional Trustee company, with offices throughout Great Britain today launched PSICR – PS Internal Controls Review service.

The Pensions Regulator has recently issued a Code of practice that requires Trustees to have in place sound administrative and accounting procedures and adequate internal controls. The requirements place additional responsibilities on Trustees that could be especially onerous for small to medium sized firms who do not have their own pension departments.

In order to help Trustee boards understand and meet these requirements, PSITL has launched a new service enabling Trustees to review their current procedures and controls. The service includes detailed discussions about the current processes with the Trustees, administrators and other parties involved to obtain an understanding of the procedures and controls in place.

Once these discussions have taken place, a review of the adequacy of these procedures is provided together with key recommendations of any actions required to mitigate problems occurring in future. Ideally the process would be reviewed annually to ensure continued compliance.

The service is available to schemes even where PSITL does not act as Trustee.

Commenting on the launch, Wayne Phelan, Director of PS Independent Trustees Limited, said:

“Governance of pension schemes has been increasingly high profile and The Pensions Regulator has consulted on its Code of Practice on Internal Controls. Clearly Trustees are now expected to demonstrate a higher degree of control over the pension scheme activities and now is the time to review what they currently have in place.

PSITL’s practical understanding of the new requirements imposed, together with our experience of acting as Professional Trustee, allows us to assist Trustee boards to meet this challenge.

Our review process is in depth but inclusive and we aim to review the current controls based around key areas of risk. We then provide recommendations on how to mitigate such potential risks. The final report to Trustees is aimed at easily identifying current risks, potential risks and areas where adequate controls are in place.

Our service is a valuable tool at the Trustees’ disposal to ensure that adequate controls exist.”

For media information please contact:

Penrose Financial

Julie Allison, Penrose	020 7786 4872
Roman Townsend, Penrose	020 7786 4875

Notes to editors:

PS Independent Trustees Limited

Founded in 2001, PS Independent Trustees Limited is a separately managed Professional Trustee company within the Sanlam Financial Services Ltd group.

PS Independent Trustees Limited provides Trustee services for ongoing schemes, closed schemes, schemes that have commenced wind up procedures and also provides independent reviews of practices and procedures for Trustee Boards. Being a sister company to Punter Southall & Co, a leading actuarial consultancy, the Directors have the support and infrastructure to enable them to assist Trustee Boards to tackle relevant actuarial, administration and investment considerations. They are recognized experts in the complex field of scheme wind-ups, having regularly received appointments from Opra and receivers or liquidators acting for insolvent companies.

Each appointment is led by an experienced Director. Director that acts for clients has considerable experience of working with Trustees and Advisers on a wide range of issues and has considerable commercial experience. Most Directors are qualified actuaries.