Trustee boards have adapted well during the Covid-19 pandemic but “significant issues" remain, with an increasing burden on trustee board chairs and secretaries as they try to maintain efficient governance, Aon has warned.

The firm explained that the onset of lockdown in March represented a “real challenge” for trustee boards and their ability to maintain effective governance of their schemes, especially due to the practical issue of how to hold virtual meetings for widely spread board members.

Aon partner, Susan Hoare, emphasised that whilst the initial technical challenges of meetings have been overcome, and "in many cases embraced", there are still "significant issues" to consider as the pandemic continues to prevent face-to-face meetings.

She argued that this has placed an “extra burden” on those running boards to find the most effective way to bring people together and use their time to the best effect.

However, Hoare noted that schemes are now moving onto the next stage with the these conditions "likely to prevail for a while yet".

She added: “On the positive side, this is producing some constructive and innovative thinking about how to make this work and how to find the best way to use trustees’ time.

“Many schemes are taking the opportunity to reflect on what has worked well and what less so.

“We’ve seen instances of where boards have successfully explored technical solutions to share material such as on-screen whiteboards, while others have thought laterally about the best way of assembling trustees in a time-effective way.”

Aon also predicted that, following the pandemic, few pension schemes will revert fully to the traditional quarterly face-to-face meetings cycle.

It predicted that schemes would “embrace the experience” of lockdown and utilise a mixture of face-to-face meetings, alongside more frequent short virtual meetings.

Hoare concluded: “Clearly there are swings and roundabouts to the situation; travel time to meetings is no longer an issue but the burden on chairs and secretaries to maintain a cohesive board has increased.

"They have to keep all trustees involved and need to avoid the risk of a board fragmenting into different groups or of a two-tier structure developing.

“As ever, the need to be nimble is of the highest importance - this is a situation which is still developing and which will require flexible thinking for some time to come.”

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