About Sean
Sean has over 15 years’ experience advising on all aspects of pensions law and all types of pension arrangements. His experience includes advising trustees of pension schemes, employers which provide workplace pensions, private individuals on their own pension arrangements and providers of SIPP and SSAS arrangements.
Sean has previously worked in the pensions law teams at Norton Rose Fulbright, Pinsent Masons and Blake Morgan
Memberships
- Association of Pension Lawyers
- long-term projects such as buy-out transactions that transfer pension scheme liabilities to insurance companies
- the legal aspects of investment decisions by trustees such as the review and negotiation of investment management agreements and advice on pooled investment arrangements
- the rectification of incorrectly administered pension benefits
- the restructuring of pension provision including in the context of insolvency and where the Pension Protection Fund has a role
- compliance with pensions legislation and Court decisions such as GMP equalisation
- compliance with the automatic enrolment of workers into a qualifying pension scheme
- the pensions tax rules
- disputes which relate to pensions arrangements such as complaints to the Pensions Ombudsman
- bulk transfers to a master trust
- the winding-up of pension schemes
- drafting any legal document which relates to a pensions arrangement such as governing deeds or rules
- advise in connection with small pension schemes known as SSASs and SIPPs
- Sean also has considerable experience advising on the pensions aspects of all sizes of corporate and banking transactions both domestic and international
Contact Sean
Call: 0345 646 0549
Mobile: 0781 278 0159
- Advised the trustees of a defined benefit pension scheme in connection with a long running buy-in and buy-out project of several years with the insurer Just
- Advised the trustees of a defined benefit pension scheme on an investment into a direct lending fund based in Luxembourg and reviewed and negotiated the terms and conditions and the policy documentation
- Drafted and negotiated and advised in connection with a regulated apportionment arrangement for a defined benefit pension scheme with over 5,000 members where the sponsoring employer is a government contractor
- Advised in connection with the transfer of pension rights from the UK to a qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme or QROPS and the UK tax status of the QROPS
- Advised on a bulk transfer of members from a defined contribution pension scheme to the Legal & General master trust
- Advised an Italian multi-national whose UK subsidiary sponsored a UK defined benefit pension scheme where the only meaningful activity of the UK subsidiary was as sponsor of the pension scheme and the UK subsidiary had ceased trading and had no employees or directors based in the UK. The Italian multi-national had to address several complex and costly points in relation to the pension scheme before it could implement its plan to liquidate the UK subsidiary
- Reviewed the terms and conditions of a SIPP product and other member literature for a SIPP provider
- Acted for a SSAS and SIPP provider in connection with the Pensions Regulator suspending it as a SSAS trustee and a HMRC criminal investigation into an alleged offence of ‘cheating the public revenue’ through SIPPs
- Managed the provision of legal advice on employee benefits in several European countries for a global corporate transaction which spanned over 50 countries
- Provided advice to a mainstream commercial lender where the borrower was the sponsoring employer of a defined benefit pension scheme in connection with the risk of criminal offences introduced by the Pension Schemes Act 2021
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