News

BESTrustees is proud to announce that it has achieved certification from Cyber Essentials, recognising its dedication to cyber security. The certification means that the business now complies with the government-backed cyber security standard, an important step in ensuring the security of its business and offering reassurance to both clients and colleagues alike. Cyber Essentials is part of the government’s National Cyber Security Strategy to make the UK a safer place to conduct business online. The Cyber Essentials award is a key certification which relates to security controls and the secure configuration of an organisation’s computing resources. BESTrustees’ IT defences now …

BESTrustees has announced its fifth professional trustee recruit in the last three months – and the first of 2025 – with the arrival of Sanjay Gupta. His recruitment follows the recent arrivals of Alison Creasy, Sue Hunter, Russell Baird and Peter Redhead. Sanjay joins BESTrustees after a 35-year career as a consulting actuary, the last 25 of those as a Senior Director at WTW, where he held several scheme actuary appointments on pension schemes ranging from assets of £100m to over £1bn. Sanjay’s professional experience covers both DB and DC schemes, advising both trustees and employers, which gives him an …

BESTrustees has announced the recruitment of Peter Redhead as a professional trustee, the third such appointment since the beginning of September. Peter joined BESTrustees on 23 September, after a long career at board and senior management level in the pensions industry. A Scheme Actuary and corporate actuary for more than 30 years, Peter led actuarial, settlement ,investment and pension administration businesses, so is well placed to understand the risks and challenges facing pension schemes. He joins BESTrustees from Aon and previous roles include Board positions with Jardine Lloyd Thompson and the former Independent Trustee Services. “Peter is the third trustee …

BESTrustees is delighted to announce the recruitment of Russell Baird as a Professional Trustee. Russell is a qualified actuary with over 30 years’ pensions and investment experience and joined on 16 September. He will be based in Edinburgh. Russell joins BESTrustees from Aegon Asset Management in Edinburgh where he was Head of UK Investment Solutions. His appointment is part of our strategy to expand even further BESTrustees’ visibility and presence in Scotland. Russell was attracted by BESTrustees’ unique offering of unbiased and independent expert advice and is excited to be able to bring his breadth and depth of pensions and …

The Scottish Milk Limited Retirement Benefits Plan, chaired by Zahir Fazal of BESTrustees, has completed a £42 million full-scheme buy-in with Just Group. Scheme sponsor First Milk is a British farmer-owned dairy co-operative and the transaction secures the benefits of all 452 members. BESTrustees, who have chaired the scheme since 2016, were joined in the project by PwC as lead pension risk transfer adviser whilst Mercer provided actuarial and investment advice to the Trustees, EY provided covenant advice to the Trustees. The Trustees’ legal advice was provided to the Trustees by Burness Paull, the Sponsor’s by Brodies, and Just Group’s by …