IAPF Spring 2018 Irish Pensions Magazine

IRISH PENSIONS MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018 | 23 EXPERT OPINION Trustee Behaviour and Investment Do we know how effective Trustee boards are in making decisions on behalf of members? Against a background where there is little formal research on the effectiveness of pension fund trustees, Aon recently undertook a research partnership with Leeds University Business School (LUBS) to look at the trustee landscape in the UK, to help further understand trustee decision-making. In the largest survey of its kind, LUBS surveyed 197 trustees, looking at different aspects of trustee governance including decision- making, financial literacy, attitudes to risk, and socio-demographics While the focus of the research is on trustees of defined benefit schemes in the UK, the findings are also applicable to trustees of defined benefit and defined contribution schemes in Ireland. The research covered both large and smaller schemes with asset sizes ranging from £5bn to less than £15m, with the median scheme in the £100m to £500m range. What does the typical trustee board look like? The Trustees boards were found to be strongly homogeneous. • The average trustee is a 54 year- old male, with over 70 per cent of trustees aged 50 and above. • Fewer than 1 in 5 trustees in the survey is a woman. " BETTY O'REILLY SENIOR INVESTMENT CONSULTANT AON