I have worked in pensions for over 25 years, providing legal advice to trustees, IGCs, employers and providers. My aim is always to provide practical and commercial advice, particularly in relation to complex and technical legal areas. I also enjoy working in a team alongside other advisers to get the best results for clients.

I have a special interest in the development and management of DC arrangements but I have also spent many years acting for DB schemes and dealing with their issues too.

The pensions industry needs to work closely together especially during times of significant change.   I am keen to volunteer to help wherever I can and have a history of involvement with various initiatives that impact on new legislation and regulation. I am currently Chair of PASA’s working group that is focused on CDC and a founding member of the DC Governance Group which established the PLSA’s template chair’s statement for DC schemes.

I regularly speak at conferences organised by bodies such as the PMI and SPP and write articles and blogs for pensions publications.

My role as the Managing Partner of Sackers also gives me insight into some of the challenges and decisions involved in running a business – in this case, my experience comes from running a law firm based in London, but some of the principles will be common to many other walks of life. I find this really helpful to bear in mind when advising clients as it means I can consider their position from a business perspective and not just as a lawyer.

Recent experience

• advising on the transfer and wind-up of one master trust into another under “continuity option one” of the master trust authorisation regime
• working on longer term end game journey planning for trustees with schemes holding DB, DC and AVC members
• providing training to IGC members on their legal duties
• advising employers on DC contribution/payroll issues and auto enrolment problems
• advising on DC investment platform changes and the introduction of new investment options
• running a large project to merge two large DC pension schemes for household name clients and at the same time change the receiving scheme’s administrator to an in-house admin team, introduce a new investment platform provider, and transfer out all deferred members from both schemes into a master trust operating a “shared governance” investment strategy (ie multiple projects within an overall umbrella project)
• advising on various bulk transfers into master trusts, including a project to transfer out the bulk of a DC membership with assets of £500m, whilst retaining a proportion of the membership (for tax protection reasons) and setting up for them a mirror image “own trust” version within the original pension scheme with identical investment options
• adding retirement “bolt on” strategies to DC schemes who wish to signpost members to particular provider offerings to offer greater choice and flexibility to members
• advising master trusts and DC schemes on DC governance requirements such as chair’s statements, SIPs and implementation statements, and also triggering events and significant event reporting
• advising on the use of reserve account/surplus assets
• advising on changes to retirement options, including flexible retirement and partial transfer policy.

Qualified: 1998, England and Wales

Joined Sackers: 2000

Became partner: 2006

Testimonials

“She is an outstanding advisor who is very knowledgeable and pragmatic with her advice” – Chambers UK CMI Report