Lewis Brown, vice-chair of the Association of Member-Nominated Trustees (AMNT), explains why the association has opened its doors wider to bring in other trustees with a member focus.
It was during one of my first management committee meetings for the AMNT that I found myself wondering what on earth I could contribute. My peers around the table brought a wealth of industry knowledge and experience, and steady hands already seemed to be on every tiller.
Then a seemingly innocuous point came up: namely that our constitution was due for review. I jumped at the chance to help. A sprucing up of working practices here, a fresh pair of eyes on our inclusivity language there. The job seemed modest and easily delivered. Ha, how little I knew of the task ahead!
The subsequent 18-month process turned out to be rather like peeling an onion. The upper layers – simple edits to reflect modern working conditions – came away fairly painlessly. But as we worked through them, the discussion led us to deeper and more meaningful questions.
What began as a housekeeping exercise became a more fundamental consideration of who we are, whom we represent, and how we can best serve all members and the wider pensions community. The result is the most substantial revision of the association’s constitution since its formation. A much more root-and-branch deep dive rather than the mere sprucing up I had originally envisaged.
Keeping members central
What was crucial to our thinking was that member-nominated trustees must remain at the heart of who we are and what we do, and our central objective of acting as the voice of the member is unchanged.
The decision to broaden membership does not mean broadening or weakening our mandate. We remain an organisation unashamedly dedicated to championing the member voice. As such, we have taken great care to ensure that our written constitution reflects our aims of protecting members’ rights in a rapidly changing pensions landscape.
The need to represent our current members was at the forefront of every discussion, yet my mind kept returning to the Department for Work and Pensions’ recent consultation on trusteeship. One section, innocent enough on its own, made a passing reference to creating a one-stop website for lay trustees. That single reference set me thinking about what the AMNT could do to serve the wider community of lay trustees better.
In fact, we have often been approached over the years by lay employer-nominated trustees asking whether we offer membership to them. Until now, the answer has been no.
These individuals can find themselves isolated and unrepresented in the pensions world. It is always encouraging to see them at conferences, immersing themselves in their trustee role, but it was uncomfortable to have no help to offer them along the way.
“The AMNT has a modernised constitution designed to help it weather whatever storms lie ahead. We have opened the doors a little wider, but we have done so without losing sight of why the association was founded.”
Lewis Brown, AMNT
Our new constitution resolves this, as lay employer-nominated trustees can now join us as associate, non-voting members.
We are pleased to welcome them to the association and firmly believe the whole industry will benefit from their ability to now share in our communications, educational material and conference sessions.
Retaining expertise for the future
But as we continued to peel more layers from the onion, we realised that we shouldn’t stop there. So, we have extended membership to those who have previously served as member-nominated trustees.
This matters particularly where schemes have been consolidated or where employers have moved to a sole trustee model and their experience has been lost or discarded. Giving these individuals a route to keep contributing to the AMNT, while helping us support trustees going through similar experiences, benefits everyone involved.
And there is more: scheme secretaries are now welcomed too. Scheme secretaries hold a particularly important position in pension scheme governance, often acting as the bridge between trustee boards, advisers, and sponsoring employers.
They are frequently best placed to understand both the practical challenges trustees face and the opportunities to improve how boards operate. We hope to share the benefits of our education and networking with them and to learn from their experience in return.
We are taking these steps now because it is the right time for us to broaden membership of the association as the UK pensions landscape has changed at a remarkable speed since the pandemic – a pace of change that shows no sign of slowing. The shift from defined benefit to defined contribution continues almost daily, alongside ongoing master trust consolidation.
In our view, member-nominated trustees continue to be the best advocates members have, working tirelessly to secure the best possible outcomes for their pensions. But we welcome the opportunity to help like-minded colleagues, who also hold the member interest close to heart, to do the same.
A wider spread of better-informed, better-supported trustees can only be good news for scheme members.
Eighteen months after the work began, the AMNT has a modernised constitution designed to help it weather whatever storms lie ahead. We have opened the doors a little wider, but we have done so without losing sight of why the association was founded.
We all share the wish to provide as good a pension as possible to members. By sharing knowledge, experience and support more widely with member-focused colleagues, we believe we can collectively make the voice of the member stronger still.
Lewis Brown is vice-chair of the Association of Member Nominated Trustees.
