NAPF publishes trustee guide to Investment Management Agreements | PLSA
NAPF publishes trustee guide to Investment Management Agreements

NAPF publishes trustee guide to Investment Management Agreements

12 March 2015

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), in collaboration with international law firm CMS, has published a guide for pension fund trustees to Investment Management Agreements (IMA).

An IMA documents the relationship between the pension fund trustees and the discretionary investment manager selected to manage the scheme’s assets. Trustees are responsible for the contractual terms which apply under an IMA. This guide covers the key clauses of an IMA and the issues to consider when entering into such an agreement.

Joanne Segars, Chief Executive, NAPF, said:

“At the NAPF we offer trustees and pension managers practical support to help them address core topics, by providing resources such as this new guide on Investment Management Agreements.

“The IMA is the framework that sets out the relationship between the trustees and the investment manager, and can include provisions on how the manager will report back to the trustees on stewardship activities, transaction costs and other matters. We hope this guide will allow trustees to develop agreements with their investment managers that work better for their scheme and in turn their scheme members.

“We are very grateful to CMS who, in this essential guide, have shared their knowledge and expertise gained through years of negotiating IMAs on behalf of trustees.”

Keith Webster, partner, CMS, said:

“Investment of scheme assets is a key role for trustees and it is important that they understand the contractual terms which they have in place with their investment managers. The terms of an IMA can be tailored to reflect the pension scheme’s exact requirements. It is common for this tailoring to focus on investment issues, like defining the performance benchmark, but trustees must also ensure the legal terms of the IMA match their requirements. We hope this guide will help trustees identify the key contractual terms in an IMA and understand where there is most scope for flexibility when negotiating the IMA.”

The NAPF Guide to Investment Management Agreements will be launched at the NAPF Investment Conference 2015 in Edinburgh, Thursday 12 March 2015. The guide is available to download from the NAPF website.
 -ENDS-

 

Notes to editors:

CMS
CMS is an international law firm with a market leading pensions practice advising trustees, employers and pension providers. Our trustee clients range from schemes with assets of a few million pounds to multi-billion pound arrangements.

Our pensions services includes a team of over 50 specialist investment lawyers who advise our trustee clients on documentation and related issues covering the full range of pension scheme investments, including derivatives, infrastructure investments, longevity contracts and insurance company buy-ins.

We use our vast experience and depth of resource to provide our clients with concise, commercial solutions.

For further information, please visit www.cms-cmck.com/pensions.

NAPF
The NAPF is the voice of workplace pensions in the UK. We speak for over 1,300 pension schemes that provide pensions for over 17 million people and have more than £900 billion of assets. We also have 400 members from businesses supporting the pensions sector.

We aim to help everyone get more out of their retirement savings. To do this we spread best practice among our members, challenge regulation where it adds more cost than benefit and promote policies that add value for savers.

Contacts:
Lucy Grubb, Head of Media and PR, NAPF, 020 7601 1726 or 07713 073023, [email protected]
Eleanor Bennett, Press Officer, NAPF, 020 7601 1718 or 07825 171 446, [email protected]
Laura Swartz, PR Manager, CMS, 0207 367 2303, [email protected]

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