Can you trust the trustees?

Many members of collective schemes put their faith in fund managers, watched over by trustees. But is that wise, asks Max King.

How has your pension fund performed and what are the assets in it worth? Few members of collective schemes, even finance professionals, can answer this simple question. Most of them just pay their monthly contribution and assume that the managers of the fund, watched over by the trustees and the consultants who advise them, are clocking up good returns. But is that a safe assumption?

Members of defined-benefit schemes shouldn't have to worry. If performance is poor, the sponsoring company is obliged to make up the shortfall. The problem is that these schemes now have a collective deficit of £300bn, due to lengthening life expectancy in retirement, misguided investment strategies and poor returns.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.