The Association of Professional Pension Trustees (APPT) has published a paper today that outlines its Council’s review of APPT accreditation conducted in the first half of 2023.
Initiated in 2020 after the establishment of Standards for Professional Trustees of Occupational Pensions in 2019, the accreditation programme has accredited about 400 professional trustees.
This APPT publication anticipates the impending conclusion of the DWP/HMT’s evidence call concerning Trustee skills, capability, and culture. It offers background insights for those considering the call for evidence questions about accrediting professional trustees.
The paper outlines several refinements proposed by the APPT Council for potential implementation or pursuit in connection with the APPT accreditation process.
The APPT Council’s review of APPT Accreditation has concluded that the professional trustees’ accreditation scheme has performed well within the current regulatory framework. The Council believes it’s appropriately positioned and suitable even if accreditation becomes mandatory in the future.
As a result of the review, the APPT Council plans to endorse the major overhaul of the Trustee Toolkit by TPR as the primary source of trustee knowledge, suggest updates to PMI’s Certificate in Pension Trusteeship syllabus and question banks, consider raising examination requirements to a higher level, make annual reflective development discussions with other accredited trustees mandatory for membership renewals and retain the CPD requirement with a cap on unstructured CPD.
The paper outlines the background of the accreditation regime launched in 2020 and highlights the APPT members’ adherence to standards and CPD commitments. The renewal season revealed that over half of accredited members had reflective discussions with peers. APPT’s Code of Practice for PCSTs, effective from 2021, has been upheld by its members working in professional corporate sole trusteeship engagements.
APPT chair Harus Rai says: “The paper explains that the APPT Council had originally proposed to consult on its findings, but given the DWP/HMT call for evidence we concluded it was more valuable to publish the report at this point.
“APPT will engage with DWP, HMT, TPR and members through the call for evidence process and follow-up. Once those bodies have considered the position and made their intentions clear, the Council will consider whether further changes beyond those we recommend in the paper are merited.”
