Michael Collins

Partner & Head of Pensions

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Michael Collins

Expertise

Michael advises employers and trustees of occupational pension schemes on all aspects of pensions law as well as dealing with pensions issues on corporate transactions. He also provides legal advice to executive pension providers and other pension professionals.

Michael is well placed to advise on all pensions related issues, having advised clients ranging from owner managed businesses in relation to their executive pensions to the multi-billion pound pension funds of major international companies.

Michael is a member of the Association of Pension Lawyers and serves on the committee and is the former Chair of the West Midlands Group of the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association.

How do you help clients?

I condense complex legal issues affecting pension schemes into clear, straightforward advice, helping my clients understand and effectively manage their schemes. I help clients understand and mitigate the legal risks they face and find commercial, pragmatic solutions to their pension problems.

Experience

  1. Advising on an application to court to have an historic error in a pension scheme’s documents rectified.
  2. Putting in place a range of contingent assets and alternative funding structures to enhance the security of pension scheme benefits including asset-backed funding structures using a variety of underlying assets.
  3. Resolving historic issues with a client’s defined benefit pension scheme prior to a sale of the business.
  4. Drafting a new trust deed and rules for a pension scheme which had not been updated for over 30 years resulting in a user-friendly document that the trustees and their other advisers could use efficiently.
  5. Successfully defending a complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman by a group of pension scheme members.