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Linklaters

Pensions

Linklaters' pensions practice is one of the most established and highly-rated practices in the UK and across Europe

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Market-leading experience | Team with breadth and depth | Innovative and collaborative

 

Linklaters’ pensions practice is one of the UK’s leading pensions teams, consistently recognised by clients and legal directories as top tier. We provide high-quality advice and deliver innovative solutions to a diverse range of clients. As a full-service law firm, we also provide our pensions clients with advice which is comprehensive, practical and robust and enables them to navigate through a demanding pensions legal landscape

What we do: Liability management | Investment issues | Master Trusts |  Scheme funding | Corporate restructuring |  Regulatory and compliance | DB and DC governance |  Scheme design and benefit changes | Pensions Dispute Resolution. 

For insights, commentary and news from our pensions team sign up to our PensionLinks blog.

Pensions Litigation

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Tier 1 Legal 500 2025

Pensions Non-contentious

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Band 1 Chambers 2025
Tier 1 Legal 500 2025

Related client services

Pensions De-risking

Our pensions de-risking practice brings together legal expertise in pensions, corporate insurance, investment management, banking, derivatives and structured products and data protection, providing strength in both breadth and depth making sure you have every angle covered for your transaction.

Read more Pensions De-risking

Pensions Dispute Resolution

The Pensions Dispute Resolution Group deals with the most difficult, complex and high value pension disputes in the UK. Most work we do for our clients never becomes known. We are expert at resolving and avoiding disputes. We always take the most proactive and constructive approach, avoiding going to Court if we can. However, we are always ready to fight our client’s corner.

Read more Pensions Dispute Resolution

Pensions Investment Practice

Linklaters’ Pensions Investment Practice is a cross-practice group offering an integrated service to pension funds needing legal advice on any aspect of their investments.

Read more Pensions Investment Practice

Pensions ESG

Our market-leading team of multidisciplinary and highly experienced lawyers are at the forefront of supporting clients on ESG issues. We are experienced in advising on a wide range of matters, from the detail of TCFD governance and reporting to broader questions such as whether trustees can and should invest for net zero.

Read more Pensions ESG

DC and Master Trusts

We have extensive experience in all areas of DC pensions law, including advising on all regulatory and compliance issues ranging from master trust authorisation, transfers to master trusts and DC consolidation and auto-enrolment issues.

Read more DC and Master Trusts

Examples of our recent experience include

RHM
One Stop Stores Trustee Services Limited
Rothesay Life
Aviva Staff Pension Scheme
Rothesay Life plc
Tate & Lyle Group Pension Scheme
British American Tobacco UK Pension Fund
Rolls-Royce UK Pension Fund
Pearson Pension Plan
Marks and Spencer Pension Scheme
Rentokil Initial 2015 Pension Scheme

RHM

We advised the Trustee of the RHM Pension Scheme on a segregated merger with two of the Premier Foods Group’s other pension arrangements. The merger created a scheme with combined assets of around £5.5 billion and included a package of employer covenant protections.

One Stop Stores Trustee Services Limited

Our Pensions team have advised the trustee of the One Stop Stores Pension Scheme on a bulk transfer of assets to the Legal & General Mastertrust. The transaction is set to improve the retirement outcomes of many present and former One Stop employees, who will benefit from the economies of scale that a Master Trust can offer.

Rothesay Life

Our Pensions team have advised Rothesay on a £230m buy-in with Aberdeen City Council Transport Fund, part of the North East Scotland Pension Fund, to secure pensioner liabilities. This is only the second buy-in to date involving the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Aviva Staff Pension Scheme

We advised the Trustee of the Aviva Staff Pension Scheme on an umbrella buy-in contract with Aviva Life with an initial value of £1.7bn in October 2019. This represents the largest bulk purchase annuity contract entered into by Aviva Life to date.

Rothesay Life plc

We advised Rothesay Life plc on a £3.8bn buy-in with the Allied Domecq Pension Fund in September 2019. The transaction is the fifth largest buy-in transaction announced to date by our pensions practice which has built a reputation for record breaking deals in this area.

The buy-in secures the majority of the Fund’s liabilities and is the largest scheme buy-in on record that incorporates deferred members.

Tate & Lyle Group Pension Scheme

We advised the Trustee of the Tate & Lyle Group Pension Scheme on its £930m buy-in with Legal & General in September 2019.

British American Tobacco UK Pension Fund

We advised the Trustee of the British American Tobacco UK Pension Fund on a £3.4bn buy-in for pensioner and deferred members of the Fund in July 2019. The deal represents the third largest buy-in to date, and will help to improve the security of members’ benefits.

Rolls-Royce UK Pension Fund

We advised the Trustee of the Rolls-Royce UK Pension Fund on its £4.6bn bulk annuity contract with Legal and General in June 2019.

Pearson Pension Plan

We advised the Trustee of the Pearson Pension Plan on two umbrella buy-in policies with Aviva and Legal & General in 2017, covering £1.2bn of pensioner liabilities, and the addition of a further £500m of liabilities to the Legal & General policy in early 2019.

Marks and Spencer Pension Scheme

We advised the Trustee of the Marks and Spencer Pension Scheme on two umbrella buy-in policies in 2018 with Aviva and Phoenix Life, a further umbrella buy-in with Pension Insurance Corporation in 2019 and an additional transaction with Phoenix Life under the existing umbrella buy-in in 2019. These cover in total £2.9bn of the Scheme’s liabilities.

Rentokil Initial 2015 Pension Scheme

We advised the Trustee of the Rentokil Initial 2015 Pension Scheme on its £1.5bn buy-out with Pension Insurance Corporation plc completed at the end of 2018.

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Recent Publications

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Disputes Agenda

Welcome to Disputes Agenda, the new biannual publication from the Linklaters Pensions Dispute Resolution team.

This publication comments on key recent pensions cases that have come before the courts, as well as important determinations of the Pensions Ombudsman. We also take a look at recent and ongoing action by the Pensions Regulator.

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De-risking Agenda

Welcome to our new annual publication: De-risking Agenda. This publication is designed to explore some of the current issues that pension schemes are facing, whether you are contemplating a de-risking transaction, are in the middle of one, or have executed a transaction and are looking at next steps.

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Pensions Ombudsman Focus

Read our regular bulletin, Pensions Ombudsman Focus.
The aim of this publication is to is to provide you with a monthly review of important determinations of the Pensions Ombudsman and alert you to Ombudsman related issues of practical relevance.

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Pensions Regulator Update

Read our regular bulletin, Pensions Regulator Update.
The purpose of this publication is to look at recent and ongoing action by the Pensions Regulator. We will consider the Pensions Regulator’s powers and how it uses them.  

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Trustee Agenda

Trustee Agenda aims to offer a succinct summary of these changes in an easily digestible form that can be incorporated into trustee meeting agenda packs.

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DC Agenda

In this quarterly publication we will be discussing the extension of automatic enrolment, the recent value for money consultation and the “small pots” call for evidence; and we include a round-up of other DC developments.

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Investor Agenda

The aim of Investor Agenda is to help trustees and those who support them keep informed about legal developments in the investment arena – developments that may affect the decisions they make and determine the resources they need access to, in order to make the most of the opportunities arising and to minimise risks for the benefit of their members and sponsors.

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Pensions Case Law Update

Welcome to our regular bulletin, Pensions Case Law Update. The aim of this publication is to provide a look back and commentary on the key recent cases that have come before the courts and to look ahead to some of the key decisions on the horizon.

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P5

Pensions in five

Welcome to the latest edition of P5, our monthly ‘snapshot’ of the hottest topics in pensions. Designed to give you the important headlines in just five minutes.

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Key Pensions Contacts

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