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The Trustee Toolkit: helping trustees understand the requirements of their role.

The Trustee Toolkit, the Pensions Regulator’s educational e-learning tool, has been updated and refreshed. A number of improvements to the programme went live on 14 March.

This will be good news for over 100,000 individual trustees who manage UK retirement savings. The role of the trustee is diverse and complex: while there are no detailed regulations relating to the skills and activities that trustees need to employ, there are certain legalities concerning minimum levels of knowledge and understanding.

Trustee knowledge and understanding

Following the Pensions Act 2004, trustees are required to have knowledge and understanding of pensions and trusts as well as the principles of funding occupational schemes and the investment of scheme assets. Trustees are also expected to be fully conversant with their own scheme documents and we would recommend that you are familiar with trust law.

The Trustee Toolkit is an excellent way to meet the above criteria and consolidate your trustee knowledge and understanding (TKU). Under the TKU regulations, new trustees have six months to familiarise themselves with their responsibilities for their particular scheme. The various options when registering for the toolkit enable you to undertake learning that is appropriate to you and your scheme.

The toolkit refresh

Among many improvements, we have streamlined the registration process so that it is easier to set up an account and you will find the whole experience more user friendly.

An example of the improvements we have made:

• a clearer picture of your progress
• an easier way of working through the learning which helps you identify relevant tutorials
• new scheme categories to help you tailor your learning to your scheme size and type
• downloadable resources so you can study offline.
• refreshed look and feel
• increased screen size.

Please be assured that any learning undertaken prior to the refresh will have been saved and your account will still be intact.

To register and create an account, visit the toolkit website at: http://trusteetoolkit.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/aren/index.cfm