There will be an oral report on the latest position in respect of the development of the Brunel Pension Partnership, including the latest position on the development of the new investment portfolios and the programme to transition existing assets to these new portfolios.
Minutes:
Mr Collins gave an oral update on the latest position in relation to the development of the Brunel Pension Partnership. He reported the following:
- The first transition of assets had taken place that week to Legal & General;
- The process for awarding contracts for the new UK equity portfolio was continuing, with due diligence meetings with the short-listed fund managers to be held in the following week. Part of the process was to minimise the tax implications and to this end Brunel had appointed Fund Rock as its operator;
- Papers were being despatched to the Oversight Board in relation to private markets and how to take this forward; and
- The transition timetable had been reviewed and it had remained unchanged. The next to be transitioned was the Global & Emerging Markets and DGF and Property would be later.
Mr Collins was asked about the costs of transitioning assets to L & G passive. He informed the Board that a report would be produced and then made available by the Transition Manager for the Board and the Committee once the transition had taken place. He added that, in his view, the transition costs would come in under estimate. The Chairman reported that it was expected that there would be overall fee savings across the 10 funds.
The Board asked that a GANT chart be made available in relation to the transition timetable when it was circulated.
In response to a query about whether the Board would be able to request a report from Brunel, or at least a general overall statement on the overall financial situation, Mr Collins stated that the expectation was that Brunel would not attend the Pension Fund Committee every quarter – (it had not yet been agreed on the frequency), but Brunel would be preparing a quarterly performance report. A draft of this report was to be submitted to the Oversight Board the following week. Representatives from Brunel were due to attend either the September 2018 meeting or the December 2018 Committee. Mr Collins also pointed out that currently it was difficult to ascertain the overall financial situation as so much was still to be determined, but the Oversight Board was currently examining all reporting arrangements and the Client Group was also looking at it. The process would be significantly refined over the next year and the Committee would then be able to see all the monitoring reports it wished to. He added that the intention was to hold another Brunel Engagement day in October or November this year for Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Gloucestershire to present the position as it currently stood.
He informed the Board that as Chair of the Client Group, he had recently met, along with the two Vice Chairs of the Client Group from Devon and Somerset, with the company to discuss the first year of operation. All had agreed that the arrangements were progressing well, though there were issues and actions which needed to improve. For example, the general organisation needed to be tighter as some deadlines had been missed. There was a need, however, to keep in mind that there was a huge amount of work involved. There was also the question for some about where the responsibility lay. All parties needed to get used to their new responsibilities and the new governance arrangements, understanding that they could not now be involved in the level of detail that they were accustomed to. Mr Collins stated that nationally Brunel had a good reputation to date and was proving to be a very good partnership.
The Board AGREED to note the report.