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Rachel Uttley

"A phenomenal young lawyer, who is very sharp intellectually" Chambers

Partner, Pensions
United Kingdom

Expertise

Rachel is a partner and the national head of our market leading pensions team. Rachel advises FTSE and similar employers and pension scheme trustees on all aspects of occupational and personal pension schemes including pensions issues on corporate transactions and group reorganisations, pension regulatory and governance issues, pension change projects e.g. closures and benefit change exercises, pensions tax issues, pension funding and advice on pension surplus issues, auto-enrolment issues and pensions disputes. She advises on pension schemes with assets of between £10 million and £5+ billion.

Rachel has particular expertise in buy-in and buy-out transactions where DB scheme liabilities are passed to an insurer. She has done over 35 transactions in this space over the last 5 years and advises one of the leading insurers in this market.

Experience

Rachel's recent experience includes advising:

advising the Co-operative group on pensions issues relating to the sale of its petrol forecourt business to Asda, involving the transfer of over 2,300 employees and over 130 stores;
advising Pensions Insurance Corporation on the £1.1bn bulk annuity transaction with the EDS 1994 pension scheme, to insure over 3000 pensioner and 2300 deferred members;
advising the trustee of a DB scheme for a large oil and gas company on scheme funding issues, setting up of an escrow arrangement and putting in place appropriate security and providing advice on complex issues relating to the access to scheme surplus;
advising the Asda Group Pension Scheme on GMP equalisation issues including payment of past transfer top ups which involved technical pensions tax analysis and strategic advice on accessible member communications; and
advising the sponsor of a multi-billion pound DB scheme on a potential court application for construction and rectification of historic scheme rules and all strategic negotiations with the trustee.

Professional memberships

Member of the Association of Pension Lawyers
Director of Sovereign Trustees Limited (this is an independent trustee company operated by AG and which acts as a professional trustee of pension schemes).