The Hewlett-Packard Limited Retirement Benefits Plan

On 28 October 2016 the structure of the trustee board changed from individual trustees to a trustee company. The then individual trustees of the Hewlett-Packard Limited Retirement Benefits Plan (the “Plan”) are now directors of Hewlett Packard Enterprise UK Pension Trustee Limited, which is now the sole corporate trustee of the Plan.

The trustees of the Plan agreed to set up a trustee company to act as sole trustee of the Plan, rather than remaining as individual trustees, for a number of reasons, including:

• to simplify the process for executing deeds and documents relating to the Plan;
• ensuring that investments and contracts can be held in the name of the trustee company rather than in the name of each trustee individually; and
• as directors of a company, the trustee directors benefit from an additional layer of protection from personal liability.

However, as directors of a company, they must comply with their directors’ duties and with other statutory requirements for directors of companies. This adds an additional layer of scrutiny to their actions.

The full Trustee board is responsible for making all strategic decisions, whereas the Sub-Committees primarily act as advisory bodies, making recommendations to the full Trustee board.

The existing Sub-Committees are:

• The Funding and Covenant Sub-Committee (FCS) looks at the financial strength of the Company to assess its ability to continue to provide financial support to the Plan (also known as the strength of the Company’s covenant). It also makes recommendations to the main Trustee Board on matters relating to the funding of the Plan.
• The Trustee Investment Sub-Committee (TISC) is responsible for looking after investment matters.
• The Operations Sub-Committee (OSC) oversees administrative matters, including member communications and Trustee discretions.
• The De-Risking Sub-Committee (DSC) works with the Administration Team to ensure cash flow needs are met, enabling all pensions to be paid on time.
  
• The Audit Sub-Committee (Audit SC) supervises preparation of the Plan annual report and accounts and overseas operations of the external audit.