Pension fund management

Pension fund systems ought to be carefully designed and supervised to make sure that their purposes are met, the economic consequences are appropriate and that the individual members are given some basic protection. Even when the retirement provision is "opted out" from the hands of the state and is operated by private entities, some sort of supervision is still needed.

Pension plans are complex businesses created for the benefit of pension plan stakeholders. These stakeholders typically include current and future pensioners and the "owners" of the pension plan sponsor (i.e., either shareholders or taxpayers). Pension funds are very large funds. Effective management of these funds is a very important goal not only for the contributors, but also for the economy. This is because they represent a large part of the collective household savings. If these funds are not managed effectively, it may lead to disasters of huge magnitudes. This can slowdown Gross Domestic Product of the country and may as well cause grave political disturbances. In any pension investment management system, the Board of Trustees plays an important role. The fundamental responsibility of a trustee is to serve fairly all the different classes of beneficiaries. The trustees' duties relate to the provisions of the trust and its beneficiaries.

The trustees need to ensure that: the funds are safe; they get a good investment return; the scheme is properly administered, and they act in the members' interests. Separate issues such as negotiations about pension benefits between the employer and workforce representatives are not the business of the trustees or trustee meetings, even though some trustees may be involved in different roles in these issues. Trustees are bound to seek expert advice on matters where they need help mainly with regard to investment. They need to appoint an investment adviser and seek his advice at the time of investment.