PENSIONS LAW REFORM AFTER MAXWELL: THE POSSIBLE CONTENT OF NEW PENSIONS REGULATIONS FOLLOWING THE MAXWELL CASE
| Pages | 278-291 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb024776 |
| Published date | 01 January 1993 |
| Date | 01 January 1993 |
| Author | ROBIN ELLISON |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
PENSIONS LAW REFORM AFTER MAXWELL: THE POSSIBLE
CONTENT OF NEW PENSIONS REGULATIONS FOLLOWING
THE MAXWELL CASE
Received: 16th November, 1992.
ROBIN ELLISON
ROBIN ELLISON
IS
THE AUTHOR OF TENSIONS LAW AND
PRACTICE
(LONGMANS),
THE STANDARD TEXT
ON
PENSIONS LAW. HE IS A PARTNER IN
ELLISON
WESTHORP,
THE PENSIONS-ONLY
FIRM
OF SOLICITORS BASED IN THE CITY AND
COLCHESTER,
IS A MEMBER OK THE COUNCIL
OK
THE NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION
OK PENSION
FUNDS,
AND A MEMBER OF THE
OCCUPATIONAL
PENSIONS BOARD. HE HAS
RECENTLY
PUBLISHED THE TENSION
TRUSTEES
HANDBOOK 1902' (HAWKESMERE),
AND
TENSION AND DIVORCE' (THE PENSIONS
MANAGEMENT
INSTITUTE).
ELLISON
WESTHORP
ALSO
PUBLISHES
THE PENSIONS
LAW
REPORTS AND THE MONTHLY PEXS10XS
LAW
UPDATE,
AND OWNS THE TRUSTEE
CORPORATION,
THE INDEPENDENT PENSIONS
TRUSTEE.
ABSTRACT
This
paper
describes
the legal
background
to the Maxwell scandal in which about
£500m of pension fund
money was
stolen,
analyses some
of
the
supposed flaws in the
current
arrangements for the
regulation
of
pension schemes, and suggests possible
revisions to the
current
law, anticipating
the report
of the
Goode Committee
on Pen-
sions
Law
Reform,
due in late
1993.
'Another side of Maxwell's
character that he has succeeded
in hiding totally from public view
enables him to be an excep-
tionally able chairman of commit-
tees,
the best in my personal
experience . . . The Mirror Pen-
sions Board consists of half
management, half trade union
nominees. Maxwell, as chairman,
has the casting vote. The balance
is therefore tipped, as it always
was,
in favour of the manage-
ment, but his conduct of the
meetings was impeccable in my
experience as a board member.
When he does not hold all the
aces,
he will listen, persuade and
respond.'
Bob Edwards [ex-editor, Sunday
Mirror],
'Goodbye, Fleet Street', Jona-
than Cape (1988)
278
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