Irish pension trustees’ own risk assessment (ORA) is their “most important responsibility”, according to the country’s Pensions Regulator, Brendan Kennedy.

Speaking at the Society of Actuaries in Ireland pension forum, Kennedy said that the ORA should be at the “centre of trustees’ consideration.

“My own view is that it is possibly the most important responsibility of trustees and if it is done properly, many of the other aspects of trustee responsibilities will fall into place,” he said. The requirement for an ORA was introduced with the transposition of the IORP II Directive and is set out in the Pensions Authority’s Code of Practice.

However, Kennedy has detailed four ways in which an ORA can fall short. These centre around the comprehensiveness of the OEA, a lack of information to support it, a lack of objectiveness from trustees and ORA conclusions not being implemented.

Concluding, Kennedy emphasised the importance of the risk key function holder (KFH) role.

“This risk manager role is separate to and different from that of the scheme actuary, and their role is to ensure that the risk management process and specifically the ORA is comprehensive and objective. I suggest that any newly appointed risk manager should work with the trustees to immediately undertake an ORA, even if it is informal and if the process can be improved over time.”

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