Trustees and the 1997 Trust Deeds

During the Hursley Pensioners AGM on 13 March 2001 Kevin Waller justified the action of the Trustees in modifying the 1995 Trust Deed by claiming that they were acting for members of IBM Pension Plans present and future, quoting a phrase from the 1957 Interim Trust Deed. (this phrase is in the Whereas section)

WHEREAS the Employer has determined to establish a pension fund for the purpose of providing retirement pensions and ancillary benefits for such of its present and future employees as under the Rules hereinafter mentioned shall be admitted thereto in accordance with proposals therefore lately circulated.

The action of the Trustees took place in December 1996 at which time there were no M Plan members, only members of the C Plan, a defined benefit plan. The complicated structure defined by the 1997 Trust Deeds had as its object the ability of IBM to avoid paying its proper contributions to the M Plan and instead to take these payments out of the C Plan Fund. This was not announced at the time and only became evident later in May 1998 when the 1997 Pension Plan Report was published.

The C Plan Fund was set up for the benefit of the members of that fund and the contributions to the C Plan Fund both by IBM and by the members of the C Plan Fund were placed in Trust for their benefit.

I claim that this action was prejudicial to members of the C Plan and a breach of the Trustees duty to the existing members in 1996. The Trustees at the time were Trustees solely of the C Plan Fund.

Note: where C Plan is used it includes members of the N and E Plans

David Reid 18 March 2001

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