"Prudent Person Principle"

Date of Live Session:   Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012

Live Session Time:      11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Savings Time                            (Toronto, Canada)

4:00 PM UK Time

5:00 PM Central European Time

Replay:                        Available anytime until Jan. 12, 2013

The IPEBLA Teleconference Committee has assembled an expert panel of speakers who will address the topic, “Prudent Person Principle".

This Teleconference will be conducted in English.

Speakers:

Tejash Modi, Morneau Shepell, Canada.

Flavio Rodrigues, Bocater, Camargo, Costa e Silva, Brazil.
Jan Van Gysegem, Claeys Engels, Belgium.

Moderator/Speaker: 

Kees-Pieter Dekker, Van Benthem & Keulen, the Netherlands.

This teleconference will address the current application of the prudent person principle in occupational pension schemes in various jurisdictions where that principle applies.

The prudent man rule is an old trust law requirement in UK law, introduced in the last part of the 19th century and pre-dating pensions trusts. The classic statement is in the 1883 case of Speight v Gaunt by Lord Blackburn… "as a general rule a trustee sufficiently discharges his duty if he takes in managing trust affairs all those precautions which an ordinary prudent man of business would take in managing similar affairs of his own". A few years later (1886) it was modified a bit in Re Whiteley "…The duty of a trustee is not to take such care only as a prudent man would take if he had only himself to consider; the duty rather is to take such care as an ordinary prudent man would take if he were minded to make an investment for the benefit of other people for whom he felt morally bound to provide. That is the kind of business the ordinary prudent man is supposed to be engaged in; and unless this is borne in mind the standard of a trustee's duty will be fixed too low; lower than it has ever yet been fixed, and lower certainly than the House of Lords or this Court endeavoured to fix it in Speight v Gaunt.”

Currently, member states of the EU are required under article 18 of the European Pensions Directive (IORP Directive 2003/41/EU) to implement the prudent person principle in national regulations relating to investment of pension scheme assets. Some member states have chosen to limit the scope of the prudent man principle by setting hard quantative restrictions (rule based). Other member states have chosen to just implement the prudent man principle as such (principle based). Prior to the introduction of the principle common law jurisdictions such as the UK and Ireland had case law regarding the prudent person principle. Similarly there is case law on the point in Canada and the US. In Canada there was (or still is) also statutory regulation on the matter.

Recently there is a case in the Netherlands between the regulator and a pension fund about the scope of the prudent man principle. In this case, the regulator has forced the pension fund to reduce its substantial investment in gold to a prudent level. The court decided in favour of the defending pension fund and the case will be heard in appeal shortly.  

The teleconference will address the subject from the perspective of a number of jurisdictions - currently the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Brazil.

Length of teleconference:
The panel discussion will run for approximately 70 minutes, followed by a 20-minute question and answer session.

You can download the registration form (see page 3) HERE or register and pay online HERE.

Dial-in Numbers will be emailed to you once you have registered and paid. Please refer to the Global Toll Free HERE if you are an international caller.