OPDU (the Occupational Pensions Defence Union), the provider of professional indemnity and liabilities insurance to pension trustees, administrators and sponsoring employers, has launched a pensions trustee liability policy specifically aimed at individual independent trustees in the UK.

With The Pension Regulator's (TPR) new tougher stance on the need for better scheme governance and control, many pension schemes have appointed an independent trustee to improve their board functioning and to provide insight and challenge to facilitate decision making and enable the best possible financial outcome for all parties involved.

Many independent trustee appointments are single individuals who have either set up their own companies or who trade in their own names. A lot of such individuals have multiple appointments. The role of independent trustees and the need for minimum standards, qualifications and insurance is an area of ongoing debate and consultation in the pensions industry.

OPDU's new Individual Independent Trustee Liability Policy will now cover such individuals for insurance in a standalone policy in the name of the individual trustee only,  independent of any other policy offered by a scheme sponsor or under scheme provisions.

Martin Kellaway, Executive Director at OPDU, said: "This new OPDU policy is designed to stand in front of any existing protections and provide peace of mind for individual independent trustees and will cover all pension schemes the trustee is appointed to. It can only be called upon by the named trustee and not any other trustees of a scheme and is a further example of maintaining the high professional standards of the independent trustee."

OPDU is part of the Thomas Miller Group and covers UK pension schemes across DB, DC and master Trusts with over £125 billion in assets.