Trustees – the scope of knowledge and understanding
Under the Pensions Act 2004, pension scheme trustees must have sufficient knowledge and understanding (TKU) of pensions and trusts law to run their schemes properly. Trustees should also be conversant with scheme documents. On 4 February 2005, Opra published final lists of issues which “the pensions industry considers trustees need to know and understand, and…policy with which trustees should be conversant” in order to fulfil these requirements. Opra refers to these lists as “the Scope of knowledge, understanding and conversance”. The new lists (or scope documents) are the culmination of Opra’s work behind the scenes over the last six months or so, including responses received to pre-consultation scoping documents issued by Opra in October 2004 and subsequent workshops.