Increasing the security of your benefits
It is the Trustee’s duty to look after the Scheme in the best interests of its members and make sure it has enough money set aside to pay members’ benefits whenever they need to be paid. The Trustee, with agreement of the Company (M&S plc), has taken an important step to provide additional protection for your benefits in the Scheme by making a significant investment with two UK regulated insurance companies called a ‘buy-in’ or ‘bulk annuity policy’.
How a ‘buy-in’ works
Put simply, the Trustee invests an amount (called a premium) with each insurer for a proportion of the Scheme’s pensions, in return the insurer guarantees that it will make monthly payments to the Scheme to cover the payments for those pensions. This helps protect the Scheme against risks such as poor economic conditions and paying pensions for longer than currently expected. It makes the future cost of paying those benefits easier to predict, which improves the financial security for all members’ benefits.
Your benefits are not affected by this investment and all pensions will continue to be paid directly from the Scheme in line with the Rules. Read our Q&A here for more information.