Myth Buster: Scott’s adventures in Corporate Sole Trustee (CST) Land

It’s CST survey season with both LCP and Hymans Robertson launching their papers on the CST market. Themes include:

• Both show a significant increase in CST schemes with an expectation that this will continue.
• CST accounts for around a third of professional trustee appointments.
  Whilst many CST schemes are towards the smaller end of scheme asset size; increased interest is occurring across the size spectrum with many £1bn+ appointments being made.
• Top drivers for a move to CST include succession planning, cost efficiencies and regulatory/expertise assistance.
• CST contributes significantly to the proportion of risk transfer activity.
• Highlighting the importance in diversity of thought and how this is incorporated into the CST model.

Scott attended the PLSA Conference in Manchester to discuss CST with attendees. Sessions there backed up the importance of getting the CST model right and how the future regulatory landscape might evolve. LawDeb stand ready for this scrutiny and support the need for a robust model.

Myth-buster

CST means merely replacing the current trustees with a professional trustee but everything else remains the same. FALSE! This is also an opportunity to step back and review the model.

CST is a unique opportunity to make the governance of the scheme more streamlined. Decisions are often taken in real time rather than waiting for a quarterly meeting. Expensive and cumbersome packs can be dispensed with. Interaction with the sponsor still occurs but this model makes the best use of their time.