Christopher Stiles

Partner, Gowling WLG

Christopher Stiles is a partner based primarily in Birmingham who helps clients to deal with any contentious or non-contentious legal issues that may arise in relation to their pension plans with the greatest possible ease and efficiency.

Pensions can be a challenging area for employers, with pension plans that ranging from legacy arrangements that are now closed to accrual, but are still a major liability on the balance sheet, to ongoing plans that are used to reward current employees.

Christopher takes a particular interest in innovative and complex projects including asset-backed funding arrangements, liability management exercises and buy-outs.

On the trustee side, Christopher has close ongoing relationships with his trustee clients and helps them through the legal issues they face in running their pension schemes, both the day-to-day problems and larger projects including scheme mergers and wind-ups

Contributed to

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Longevity swaps

Practice Notes

This Practice Note focuses on longevity swaps as a means for defined benefit pension schemes to hedge the longevity risk they face. In particular, this Practice Note explains how longevity swaps work, what considerations are relevant to employers and trustees when deciding whether to enter into a longevity swap contract and if so, on what terms.

Pensions

Tax treatment of pensions—an introduction

Practice Notes

This Practice Note provides an overview of the tax treatment of UK registered pension schemes (in particular regarding income tax and national insurance contributions). It summarises the main tax rules applicable to member and employer contributions, scheme assets (including investment returns on those assets) and scheme benefits paid out of the scheme. It also considers the tax treatment of UK private pension arrangements that are not registered pension schemes.

Pensions

Transfer to a DB superfund—trustee and employer considerations

Practice Notes

This Practice Note focuses on the considerations applicable to trustees and employers of a defined benefit (DB) scheme when considering transferring to a DB superfund.

Pensions

VAT and pension scheme costs

Practice Notes

STOP PRESS: On 10 July 2026, HMRC revised VAT Notice 700/17 to clarify that VAT-registered employers may generally recover input tax on management and investment costs, subject to the application of normal VAT rules. The updated guidance confirms that employers are no longer required to apportion dual-use costs between themselves and trustees where qualifying services are supplied under a single invoice and explains the conditions under which trustees may recover VAT. It also provides further guidance on VAT group registrations and on recovery where an employer ceases trading or becomes insolvent, including costs incurred in winding up occupational pension schemes. This Practice Note is being reviewed in the light of this revised guidance. For further information, see LNB News 10/07/2026 39.THIS PRACTICE NOTE APPLIES IN RELATION TO OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEMESThis Practice Note contains references to case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). For guidance on whether EU judgments are binding on UK courts, see Practice Note: Assimilated law—Assimilated case law.VAT basicsThe

Pensions

Conflicts of interest policy

Precedents

This Precedent is suitable for use by the trustees (or trustee company) of an occupational pension scheme to record the arrangements put in place to manage their conflicts of interest, in accordance with the Pensions Regulator’s guidance on conflicts of interest.

Pensions