Pensions SORP; funding gaps; corporate governance and trustees responsibilities; changing regulation and practice are some of the issues affecting the sector.

We audit over 150 schemes ranging in size from those with in excess of £750 million of assets and over 11,000 members through to single member schemes.

Our firm-wide specialist Pensions Group, chaired by Stephen Corrall, co-ordinates our services to pension schemes and comprises partners and managers with particular skills and experience in advising them. The Group monitors developments in the industry and issues technical updates for clients and the firm’s partners and staff.

Members of the team represent Chantrey Vellacott DFK in the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and Pensions Research Accounts Group (PRAG), regularly attending meetings and seminars.

Services to Pension Schemes

In addition to the statutory audit we provide services to our clients in areas such as: 

• Compliance and Secretarial services
• Accounts preparation
• Employer covenant reviews
• Consultancy services covering set-up, ongoing compliance and wind-up
• Completion of tax returns and tax computations
• Employee and senior management benefits and taxation advice
• Systems Consultancy
• Individual payroll site reviews
• Review of investment manager records held on behalf of defined contributions schemes

Audit Approach to Pensions

Our audit approach is tailored to meet the needs of individual clients once we have detailed information about their scheme.

We use tailored audit programs and approach, which we have developed from our experience of pension scheme audits. This is designed to ensure that our service is delivered as efficiently and effectively as possible with minimum disruption to yourselves and your advisors.

We will liaise with the scheme administrator and Trustees to ensure that the audit is conducted efficiently. We will plan our work to ensure that the Annual Report is signed within the statutory deadline or during the appropriate Trustee meeting in which they will be approved. We shall gladly attend this meeting, if required. A formal management letter will be provided to the Trustees on completion of the audit. We believe that effective and regular communication with the administrator and Trustees is a key constituent of an efficient audit.

The issues that we believe are critical to the auditing of a pension scheme are:

• Effective planning and close liaison with the scheme advisors.
• Contributions - to ensure that the right amount has been paid over by the employer at the right time.
• Transfer Values - to ensure that transfers agree with the documented values and calculations.
• Outgoings - to ensure that these agree to supporting documentation.
• Investments - to ensure that these are held independently of the Trustees and to obtain confirmation from the investment managers and the custodians of the nominal and market values.
• Review of systems and procedures in operation so that we can provide comfort to the Scheme trustees that they are effective.

Clients

Examples of our Pension scheme clients include:

• Gallaher Pension Scheme
• ITB Pension Scheme
• AIG Insurance Pension Scheme
• Mencap Pension Scheme
• Heidelberg Group Pension Scheme
• College of Law Pension Scheme
• Superdrug Pension Plan
• Lufthansa German Airlines Retirement Benefits Scheme

Membership

We are members of the following groups:

• PRAG
• National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) + regional groups as follows:
  • City & Eastern NAPF
  • West London NAPF
  • North London NAPF
  • South London NAPF
  • South East London NAPF