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E&OE

Note. Information is difficult to obtain as the trustee acts as a gatekeeper and will not always answer your questions, especially to your satisfaction. The points on this page have been asked of the trustee but not answered.

 

Ask your trustee by phone, letter or COMMENTS facility.

 

? - HMRC is expected to claim £1,712,326.27 from your £2,050,100 fund and may leave NOTHING after the trustees etc. have had their fees. Ask your trustee how this may affect the PPF scheme.

? - The Pension Protection Fund will not accept the scheme before INSOLVENCY but will then require a minimum of one and upto two years to ASSESS the scheme. Ask your trustee, what is the level of COMPENSATION for deceased pensioners who would no longer receive a pension. As pensions have not be paid since 2001, how will compensation be calculated for those who will be 'existing' and 'deferred' pensioners?

? - The Pension Protection Fund advise that deceased pensioners claims may be considered separately as part of the Fraud Compensation Fund . Ask your trustee how deceased pensioners claims will be dealt with.

? - The Pension Protection Fund advise that any outstanding claims (deceased pensioners) should be addressed as part of a scheme's ongoing governance, which would be reviewed if and when a scheme entered assessment. Ask your trustee if they will advise executors and administrators how best to make claims.

? - The Pension Protection Fund advise that the trustee is responsible for pension payments during their ASSESSMENT period. Ask your trustee if pension payments will commence at start of ASSESSMENT.

? - The trustee says the Pension Regulator & the Serious Fraud Office agreed that scheme accounts were NOT required, so we may never know what happened to the £100,000 compensation from Iversen or the residue after Smyth wasted hundreds of thousands. Remember when the Balfron Group was wound up, it was expected the fund was worth £5,000,000. There is no available record of the schemes assets since 2001. The trustee however was still taking his fees from your assets. Ask your trustee why they paid the previous disgraced trustee's fee invoice (after the court case) without demanding their accounts and records or why no accounts have been kept by themselves from 2004 to 2007. Also why there does not seem to be any monies prior to the Stiedl compensation appearing in the 2007/8 accounts.

? - The trustee engaged a sister Westerby company and paid £32,000 fees to them. Ask your trustee to identify the tasks undertaken by the sister company for these considerable fees. To date they have only indicated that a recommendation for a fund manager was made. They also refuse to indicate the tasks undertaken by the other seven companies involved with your pension scheme.

? - If the trustee has engaged Alexander Forbes company to deal with general administration and hopefully transfer to the PPF, plus Pinsent Masons to petition the court etc. Ask your trustee to identify their own tasks for fees of £28,000 per annum.

? - Westerby indicate that Alexander Forbes will answer any questions however AF often say they are only advisors and the questions are for the trustee. This leads to a total impasse and no answers. Ask your trustee why this situation has arisen and is allowed to continue.

? - Ask your trustee when the ACTUARIAL report will be available and why was it not produced with the Financial Statement.

? - Ask your trustee why was the Balfron Group Ltd dissolved on 9th March 2007 when now it is being restored in September 2009? Is there really a plan?