Originally published at CityAm
Pension black holes have a history of weighing heavily on big corporations as amply illustrated by former retail darling BHS.
The retailer may have disappeared from the high street but its unwieldy £570m pension deficit has yet to be resolved. While the public glare over the BHS fiasco focused on the dealings of Sir Phillip Green and Dominic Chappell, comparatively few questions were asked about the role of the pension scheme’s trustees. Those questions include: what did they do to safeguard pensioners’ interests? Were they able to stand up to Green as he and his wife enjoyed chunky dividend payouts? Why did they not better challenge management on the spiralling deficit?