The Carey Workplace Pension Trust has applied for master trust authorisation and consolidated two other schemes, RP’s sister publication Professional Pensions can reveal.
The application was submitted yesterday (29 March), after transferring Amber Financial Investments’ £53m scheme, the Amber Pension Trust, and AGL Wealth’s master trust, the £1.7m AGL Corporate Pension Trust.
This brings the total number of known applications to 25. Carey’s master trust’s total membership has now risen to over 61,000, while its assets under management have grown to almost £111m.
Carey is also finalising plans to transfer members and assets of the Islamic Pension Trust, which it administers.
Chief executive Christine Hallett said she was “extremely pleased” that her team got the application submitted before the deadline date.
She noted that the process had been a “painstaking task over the last six months”, but she believes “that the quality of the submission is very good”.
Hallett added: “We have a culture of strong corporate governance and support the process that The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has introduced.
“I look forward to receiving confirmation that the application has been successful, but realise this may take a few months. In the meantime it’s business as usual, providing good service to our existing members and looking forward to taking on more transferring schemes and new schemes.”
The deadline day for master trust authorisation applications to be submitted is just two days away – on 31 March – and 24 master trusts are awaiting response from the regulator.
These include NEST, which applied earlier this week, while just one master trust – Willis Towers Watson’s LifeSight – has been authorised. Other recent applications include Aegon and Ensign, which both applied last week.
The regulator has granted 11 master trusts an extension of up to six weeks, including Now Pensions., while 14 are yet to declare their intentions. Meanwhile, 40 have exited or triggered their exit, including Welplan Pensions.