Silver
Thatch holds second successful "Pensions For Dummies"
luncheon seminar
Blair Brinkley of Saxon Administration presenting at Silver Thatch "Pensions for Dummies" seminar.
Silver Thatch Pension Fund held another successful "Pensions for Dummies" luncheon seminar at the Marriott on Thursday May 22nd. The seminar was the second in the series designed to inform and educate pension members on the structure, performance and management of the pension fund.
Based on the idea of the popular "Dummies" book series, "Pensions for Dummies" aimed to explain Cayman's pension laws in plain English and increase the level of understanding with regards to the Silver Thatch pension fund and its performance. The first seminar held in March of this year, focused on employers and HR managers, while the focus of this recent seminar was to provide information to employees who are contributing to the Silver Thatch pension plan.
Presentations were made by Blair Brinkley of Saxon Administration, which manages the client services function for Silver Thatch and also by Peter Tonisoo from Coutts (Cayman) Ltd., which is the investment management company for the pension plan portfolio. Mr. Brinkley discussed the employee responsibilities, accumulation and payment of benefits, information reporting, as well as future developments and challenges. The responsibilities of employees in regularly checking their pension plan statements and ensuring that the plan administrators have accurate personal information were also highlighted as fundamental to ensure smooth operation of the fund. Mr. Tonisoo spoke of the pension's relative performance against the benchmark and also explained the risks associated with the investment of the fund.
According to Mr. Brinkley, "the idea
behind the seminar is to educate contributors and to ensure that
members are kept up-to-date on the plan and its performance".
He added, "by holding seminars such as these, we hope to
further open up communication between our contributors and Silver
Thatch, so that we can serve our customers better".
Over 60 members participated in the presentation, acting as representatives
for over 800 employees within their individual companies, and
the overall consensus was that the event was very educational.
Following the two presentations, the floor was opened up to a
questions and answers session, where members had the opportunity
to pose questions regarding their pensions or the Pensions Law.
Self-help material was distributed in the form of an interactive
cd, which contained a blend of information based on the presentations
of both Mr. Brinkley and Mr. Tonisoo as well the members' handbook.
It is hoped that seminar attendees will pass this information
on to their colleagues. Mr. Brinkley also informed the seminar
participants that the Silver Thatch website (www.silverthatch.org.ky)
is regularly updated with information on the plan and its performance,
and a copy of the presentation can be viewed on the website also.
It was noted that the Silver Thatch Annual General Meeting will be taking place in November and notification will be sent to members inviting them to attend.
As a non-profit trust run by the membership-elected Trustees, the Silver Thatch pension plan is one of the Cayman Islands largest pension providers with more than $60m in assets and more than 8,000 members. For more information on Silver Thatch, call 943 7770 or see the website for more details: www.silverthatch.org.ky.