The implied duty of trust and confidence for pension lawyers

Produced in partnership with Clive Weber of Wedlake Bell
Practice notes

The implied duty of trust and confidence for pension lawyers

Produced in partnership with Clive Weber of Wedlake Bell

Practice notes
imgtext

Demonstrating an Employer has breached its duty of good faith is no easy matter.

The implied duty of good faith (known as the implied duty of Trust and confidence in the contractual context) was first established in a pensions context in Imperial Group Pensions Trust v Imperial Tobacco (Imperial) in 1991 and has been developed in subsequent cases. A modern restatement emerged in the High Court decision in the Prudential case in 2011. As the judge stated in Prudential, the duty of good faith cannot be 'freeze-framed' at the date of the Imperial decision.

However, while the duty has developed over time, it is now accepted that the 2014 High Court case IBM v Dalgleish went a step too far when it decided on the facts that the employer had breached its duty of good faith. This high watermark of the duty of good faith has significantly receded since then. Indeed, in August 2017, the Court of Appeal reversed almost the entirety of IBM v Dalgleish

Clive Weber
Clive Weber

Partner and Head of Pensions & Employee Benefits, Wedlake Bell


With over 25 years experience of pension law including developing the Wedlake Bell pensions team, Clive's pensions experience is extremely wide. Recent work has involved Clive in discussions with the Pensions Regulator on various matters including in relation to an historical ETV exercise, and advising employers and trustees concerning compliance, choices and scheme amendments under the new pension legislation.

Over the last few years Clive has advised frequently on the effect of the debt regulations on employers exiting defined benefit schemes, and trustee powers to obtain further contributions from employers. Other frequent areas of advice include the proper exercise of trustee powers of alteration and employers' obligations towards the scheme membership, pension issues on divorce, member trustee requirements, confidentiality of trustee proceedings, trustee conflicts of interest, pension aspects of corporate transactions, part-timer claims and Pensions Ombudsman disputes.

Clive also has extensive experience of advising on scheme conversions, the new tax regime for occupational pension schemes and SIPPs, advising in relation to small self-administered pension schemes and on trustee third party agreements with scheme administrators, investment managers and actuarial appointments.

Powered by Lexis+®
Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Key definition:
Trust definition
What does Trust mean?

An equitable obligation (ie a duty imposed by the law of equity), binding the trustee to deal with property over which he has control (the trust property), for the benefit of persons (the beneficiaries), of whom the trustee may be one, and any one of whom may enforce the obligation.

Popular documents