New Fiduciary Considerations for U.S. Public and Private Pension Plan Governance

Updated guidelines for pension fund governance have been approved by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.  Although pension plan governing bodies are not required to adopt these 2009 guidelines, they indicate world trends and may be useful to governing bodies overseeing pension plans across borders.  In the attached article, David Powell suggests that where the 2008 guidelines vary from current U.S. pension plan governance practices, U.S. plan sponsors and fiduciaries – including public pension plan boards may wish to think ahead as to whether they should be moving toward adopting the recommendations as practices were appropriate.