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In line with most other organisations, the Trustees will be carrying out future business and meetings via conference call and emails, rather than face to face meetings. The Trustee Services Team, which supports the Trustees are also facing travel restrictions and are now all working from home. Whilst this is not ideal we remain confident that the Trustees can continue to manage the Schemes in a broadly “business as usual” way with the usual expected level of support from the Trustee Services Team.
As communicated in previous newsletters, the Schemes have considerably reduced the risk of significant volatility in their investments over the years and now only hold about 10-15% potentially more volatile higher expected return assets such as equities. The Trustees have also previously taken a lot of action to minimise the impact of changes in interest rates, inflation and currency.
So, whilst the Schemes are not immune to the current market falls, the actual impact on the funding position to date has not been anywhere near as dramatic as the market falls that you may have seen reported in the press. As you would expect, the Trustees are keeping this position under constant review and are working closely with RSA in relation to the impact of the virus on the Schemes and RSA’s business in the UK and across the world.
In terms of the Scheme’s administration, as you would expect from a large global company like Willis Towers Watson, they have strong business continuity and incident management plans in place, which have now been activated. The Trustee’s priorities have been advised to Willis Towers Watson, which include:
- Ensuring that the monthly pension payroll is run and paid.
- Ensuring that key administration processes continue to be dealt with, such as notification of deaths and members retiring.
Willis Towers Watson have confirmed that they have plans in place to maintain critical services, such as those above, and the Trustees are ensuring cash liquidity to make payments. However, this is a very difficult time for Willis Towers Watson staff and therefore it is feasible that other, less critical administration tasks, will take longer than would usually be expected. The Trustees would ask you to be understanding if you need to contact Willis Towers Watson or to delay asking for information if that is possible.
Please also remember that you can obtain information about your own benefits, update your address, nominate dependents or run your own retirement and transfer value quotes (if you are a deferred member) online by logging into the member section at rsapensions.co.uk. Logon user names and passwords have been issued, under two separate letters, to all member born in 1968 or earlier. It is planned that letters to those born after 1968 will be issued in phases over the coming months.
The Trustees will be providing a more detailed update as part of the June newsletter and will of course update this message if there are any significant developments in the meantime.
The Trustees appreciate that this is a highly uncertain and unprecedented time and we want to offer our best wishes that you and your family stay safe. We thank you in advance for your understanding if things are delayed and we will continue to work closely with all parties to manage the situation and minimise any disruption to the services that you currently receive.
