Tales from virtual trustees: Part 2

All the faces are quickly replaced by discs in black squares and two initials.

The Chair opens a sub channel on the e-Governance platform with the Scheme Secretary, the Professional Trustee, Actuary and Lawyer. The Chair, taking most of the left-hand side of the screen says, “if I recall correctly, we have a Reservoir Fund held separately to the pension fund as a contingency support. We’ve not needed to unlock it so far but the company may want to do so now. Kindly remind me of the terms here?“

Lawyer, bottom right, moves Snuggles off of the keyboard, blows some of the cat hair away, and says “yes, we set it up six years ago, as part of that valuation. We’ll need the Investment Consultant for the up-to-date valuation, but about three months ago I’m sure it was about £2m.”

A few clicks by the Scheme Secretary introduces the Investment Consultant to the sub channel, top left. “£1.85m, the market conditions haven’t been too good over the last quarter” the Investment Consultant confirms. Following a request from the Chair for all to mute if not talking, to resolve the background noise of someone vacuuming, the Investment Consultant adds, “you may recall we deliberately selected a large proportion of the assets that are uncorrelated to the scheme investment and the company activities”.

The Scheme Secretary excuses himself for a moment to collect an Amazon delivery.

The Chair comes off mute after a short pause and apologises for the noise from her cleaner in the background; “so, how much can the company take?”. The lawyer says “it’s a 50/50 deal. Whatever one party wishes to take, the other party is entitled to the same amount. The only time when the Trustees are not entitled to anything is when a claim is made by the company after the scheme is wound-up”.

Professional Trustee asks, “what are the company Directors’ Long Term Incentive Plans? This should inform us what the Directors are trying to achieve for the company and over what period of time”.

The Chair says, “I’m not sure but we need to find out. We should re-join the main meeting”.

“Before we do”, the Scheme Secretary says, “may I just quickly ask the Actuary how you simplify fully (a√+4√b)(a√−2b√)?”

“I’ll help with the home schooling after the meeting” replies the Actuary.

All the discs in black squares with two initials are quickly replaced by faces.